Many people are discussing 2012 as the end of the world due to interpretations of predictions contained in the Mayan calendar - http://www.2012endofdays.org/Mayan/Mayan-Calendar.php - The Mayan civilization was extremely advanced in mathematics, engineering and astronomy. They also had an incredible understanding of time and space. Various calendars were in use to track time in linear progressions within cycles. The ?Great Cycle? of the ?Long Count? calendar equates to 5,125.36 years. The current Great Cycle is due to be completed on the winter solstice of 2012, December 21. So, it has been interpreted that on this day, the Great Cycle ends, time ends, so the Earth must end as well. However, there are different opinions on what this end date really means.
As mentioned, some believe cataclysmic events will take place in 2012 with the ultimate destruction occurring on December 21, 2012. Others believe that the world will not end, but instead humanity will enter a new age, marked by significant changes physically and mentally.
Hopefully destruction will not occur and it will be just another day. Maybe there will be some cosmic transformation. Anything is possible and it makes for an interesting discussion none-the-less.
It's also fun that Neil would set his story in 2112, exactly 100 years after the "Alignment/endbeginning". That should be enough time to crawl back out and fear the ones who came before enough to eradicate any discovered toys that helped destroy the elder race of man. Elder? Elder?! Damn, that's cold, future bro.
