2012 Debunked: Will the World End in 2012?

There has been a lot of discussion lately related to Nostradamus' predictions about the year 2012 in addition to the Mayan prophecies regarding 2012. The Mayans, in particular, are known even amongst skeptics as surprisingly accurate "forecasters" of future historical events of global importance.

It is important to note, though, that the Mayan prediction simply says that life as we know it will end-not that life or civilization will be wiped out. This is a crucial distinction; the prediction could simply be pointing to a radically new world order, political system, or to a technological breakthrough of some sort.

For example, when Thomas Edison developed and mass-produced the light bulb, it replaced existing gas bulbs and candles. It truly revolutionized the world-and put an end to the "world" as people knew it at the time.

The development of the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and-most recently-the Internet have all done similar things to society.

So, the Mayan 2012 prediction could simply be hinting to a new amazing discovery that is around the corner: teleportation, time travel, near-lightspeed space travel, artificial intelligence, to name just a few of the possibilities that await us in the future.

Or, more cynically, it could indeed be pointing to a new global conflict-a "World War III" of some sort. But keep in mind that similar predictions of doom and gloom were made for the year 2000 and nothing happened.

So what will await us in 2012? It could also be a prediction of global financial meltdown and a dissolution of the current world order-this seems, perhaps, more likely than the development of time travel or teleportation. Especially given the recent "heavy recession" in the United States and abroad, the possibility of further negative economic news is certainly real.

Despite all of this, I am an optimist-I think it would take a lot to end life as we know it. Even a huge asteroid would not wipe all of us out, and we have the technology to destroy many asteroids before they reach Earth. We also have advanced knowledge of extreme survival techniques-I think the human race would survive a drastic change in temperature or environment.

A lot of the 2012 predictions are about fear mongering: people want to sell books, TV networks want you to watch their docudramas and documentaries about the coming 2012 apocalypse, religions want you to convert before it is "too late" or whatever.

I say don't sweat it. 2012 is just another year. And whatever comes, it could be a good thing. The Mayan prediction does not say it will be something "bad". It will just be drastically different from what we are used to in 2009.