Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Friday February 03 2017, @07:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the "I-will-survive" dept.

Doomsday prepping is not a usual Soylent subject, but apocalypses are a staple of geek culture. Do Peter Thiel's preparations make sense?

You know things are getting risky when billionaires start making plans to flee to New Zealand on the off chance civilization might collapse. This week's New Yorker details the doomsday survival plans of Peter Thiel, and other notable Silicon Valley tech moguls.

The thing is, despite their virtually unlimited budgets, none of these guys is doing it right.

[...] In more realistic circumstances, there are 21.8 million veterans in the U.S., with various levels of professional expertise in solving problems like bunker busting. Hell, there's more guns than people in this country. Fixed locations are inherently vulnerable by their very nature, subject to siege, and allowing attackers to patiently plan ways to penetrate them. Any billionaire's hoard of survival supplies will be a natural target following the breakdown of society. Keeping them secret will be a challenge too, when contractors have been paid to construct them, delivery men have carried the supplies in, and even the armed guards may decide their friends and families could use all those tins of spam a little more desperately than their paranoid employer.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by ticho on Friday February 03 2017, @12:30PM

    by ticho (89) on Friday February 03 2017, @12:30PM (#462337) Homepage Journal

    Knowing stuff would just mean you won't be killed outright, but enslaved by some local warlord to use that knowledge in his or her services. Whether that's preferable to death is up to each of us individually.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday February 03 2017, @01:03PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 03 2017, @01:03PM (#462345)

    So... it'll be business as usual except a little more honest. Some general comments:

    For political reasons both specifically as a Trump supporter and general anti-prepping media outlook (My god how could someone nut trust his life to Big Brother like we do?) there is intentional blindness for how this works, but in reality someone useful, like say a hand carpenter or an organic farmer doesn't need to stockpile stuff because he's quite useful in society. The value of rich guys stockpiling stuff is that's all their good for so they make the best of it. That dude can't wire up ham radio solar power stuff or whatever, but he can invest $XXX million so at least he's good for something.

    I also think its hilarious when non-sociopaths correctly point out its hard for joe6pack to avoid a palace coup and somehow infer the sociopaths who currently are experts at avoiding corporate palace coups and political takeovers and the like are somehow magically not going to continue winning "king of the hill" games just because DC collapses or whatever. A rich old corporate guys who's spent 40 years winning at king of the hill is going to keep on winning even if the electrical grid shuts off. No need for crocodile tears about someone else taking over their retreat, what people should worry about is them becoming cult leaders or something without any restraints operating anymore.

    Another peculiar aspect of civilization breakdown is people correctly think it would be difficult to defeat say, the Hells Angels chapter from Vegas. On foot during/after the riots, Vegas being thousands of miles away from me, I'm not to worried.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday February 03 2017, @07:28PM

      by bob_super (1357) on Friday February 03 2017, @07:28PM (#462545)

      It does depend on the definition of "rich".
      A bunch of useless green paper and a few numbers with lots of zeros tied to a bank in an unreachable paradise island doesn't carry much weight when even cops are hungry and their children sick.

      > A rich old corporate guys who's spent 40 years winning at king of the hill is going to keep on winning even if the electrical grid shuts off.

      If the system collapses while they are inside DC, our most competent bullshitters won't make it alive to the Potomac. They're old and surrounded by people who don't like them now, even before they let the system collapse.
      It would actually be hilarious to watch them work together for -short- survival.