It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

What is the best course of action in the following scenario:
An end-all-life-on earth sized asteroid is going to hit the earth. The governments of the world are aware that the asteroid will hit the earth in 7 days.

Should the government tell citizens that the earth is going to be destroyed – causing mass panic and setting a terrible mood for the last 7 days of life

                     --or--

Say nothing and let the vast majority of Earth’s citizens life the rest of their lives in blissful ignorance until the time of impact?

:eek: What have you heard??

Well, if the FBI shows up at your door and drags you off and then come back here posing as you to insist that this is pure speculation, I’m going on vacation!

Ever seen the movie Miracle Mile? Low budget (made for HBO?) but a classic example of what happens when news like this gets out.

I also ran across a bizarre website while trying to recall the title:
http://web.1earth.net/~postmodm/m/text/witness.html

If all the big wigs start telling the truth and going on holiday then worry !

Who says the world’s going to be destroyed ? On current form, Bush will initiate his own scientific experiments which will conclude that the asteroid is “bad for the American people and bad for American jobs” and determine it doesn’t, despite the evidence of the world’s experts, exist.

This will be good because only that part of the world that isn’t America will be destroyed. And besides, the single richest nation on earth simply can’t afford to take any action.

How could something like this possibly be kept secret? By the time this asteroid was only seven days away from Earth, it would have been spotted by any number of professional and amateur astronomers. Even if all the governments of the world had the will and the resources to silence the whole of the astronomical community, that in itself would be enough to set alarm bells ringing.

Couldn’t happen. Sorry.

Well, just to keep this debate on track, suppose a secret Defense Department research project discovered a bizarre Star Trek-style spatio-temporal anomaly–a “rift in the fabric of space-time” or something–which was going to destroy the world in very short order. Only the scientists working on this particular top-secret project are at all likely to independently discover this, since it requires the Pentagon’s new super-secret tachyon detector to detect it. So, they brief the President.[sup]1[/sup] Should he go on TV and tell everyone? After all, it’s our fate, don’t we deserve to know? On the other hand, let’s face it, you’re probably going to get a lot of religious revivals[sup]2[/sup], orgies, mass suicides, and large-scale consumption of mind-altering substances. It might not wind up being the most dignified way for the species to go.

[sub][sup]1[/sup]Or should they? Depending on how the scientists on the project answer the basic question, they might just keep their mouths shut.[/sub]
[sub][sup]2[/sup]Of course, many would argue that this would be a good reason for full disclosure, so everyone can make their peace with God. But you’ve got to figure there would be a lot of orgies, too.[/sub]

Depends on the size of the asteroid. An asteroid only 1 kilometer across could neatly cause the extinction of the human race. At that size, it is quite possible that there would be no advance warning. The current estimate (depending on whom you ask) is that we have detected only about 10% of near-Earth asteroids (asteroids whose orbits are near the Earths’) that are 1 km in size or larger.

Anyway, I think that if the government knew the world was coming to an end, and if they could conceivably keep it secret, they shouldn’t, but that’s because I think that giving people factual information is rarely a bad thing. Yeah, things might go to hell, but at least people would have the opportunity to make peace with their Maker or reconcile with their family members or whatever. I take exception to the “blissful” in “blissful ignorance.” My day-to-day life more-or-less sucks. I’d be happier if I knew the end was coming and I could prepare myself for it. (Perferably by hastily building an escape rocket in my back yard. But, well, ya know . . .)

Dude, I hope they report it. Think how much easier it would become to get laid!

Like I would want to go to work when the world’s about to end? If the end was truly near, my job would seem even more pointless than it does now. I wouldn’t want to spend my last days here. Can’t imagine anyone else would either.