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from the create-the-world-you-would-want-to-survive-in dept.
Douglas Rushkoff has a thought-provoking article on Medium, Survival of the Richest -- The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind; here are some excerpts:
Last year, I got invited to a super-deluxe private resort to deliver a keynote speech to what I assumed would be a hundred or so investment bankers. It was by far the largest fee I had ever been offered for a talk — about half my annual professor’s salary — all to deliver some insight on the subject of “the future of technology.”
[...] I just sat there at a plain round table as my audience was brought to me: five super-wealthy guys — yes, all men — from the upper echelon of the hedge fund world. After a bit of small talk, I realized they had no interest in the information I had prepared about the future of technology. They had come with questions of their own.
They started out innocuously enough. Ethereum or bitcoin? Is quantum computing a real thing? Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern.
Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”
[...] The Event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, unstoppable virus, or Mr Robot hack that takes everything down.
This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from the angry mobs. But how would they pay the guards once money was worthless? What would stop the guards from choosing their own leader? The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers — if that technology could be developed in time.
[...] The future became less a thing we create through our present-day choices or hopes for humankind than a predestined scenario we bet on with our venture capital but arrive at passively.
[...] When the hedge funders asked me the best way to maintain authority over their security forces after “the event,” I suggested that their best bet would be to treat those people really well, right now. They should be engaging with their security staffs as if they were members of their own family. And the more they can expand this ethos of inclusivity to the rest of their business practices, supply chain management, sustainability efforts, and wealth distribution, the less chance there will be of an “event” in the first place. All this technological wizardry could be applied toward less romantic but entirely more collective interests right now.
They were amused by my optimism, but they didn’t really buy it. They were not interested in how to avoid a calamity; they’re convinced we are too far gone. For all their wealth and power, they don’t believe they can affect the future. They are simply accepting the darkest of all scenarios and then bringing whatever money and technology they can employ to insulate themselves — especially if they can’t get a seat on the rocket to Mars.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Wednesday July 25 2018, @03:27AM (2 children)
Nope. We haven't. You don't give an example of previous civilization collapse so I'll give you two: the Mayan and the Roman.
The Mayan never attained anywhere close to their previous splendor, their cities abandoned by around 900 A.D. By the time the Spaniards arrived starting in 1511, no great Mayan city was inhabited. After that, well, the shit hit the fan and they never raised again.
After the fall of Rome, we had the great Dark Ages. Of course, Western Civilization arose from the ashes of Rome and here we are.
But think about it. We have mined most of the easily obtained mineral resources. Most of coal and oil are gone. Yes, there is still coal in Wyoming and Montana, but the ratios are about 3:1, that is you have to crush 3 tons of rock to get one ton of coal. And pray tell me, how are you going to crush 3 tons of rock? By hand? There is no electricity, no engines, no oil. Yes, there is a lot of copper and steel to be had by ripping it out of existing buildings, but it is all done by hand. And you have to melt it (good luck with structural steel) with bellows-blown fires, there are no electric-arc furnaces working. (And good luck finding enough timber to power a big fire.) Yes, there is still oil in the ground in Texas, but you're in New York, how the hell are going to get it there?
What is the death rate at this “event”? If most people are gone, who is going to be the workforce you will command? And how are going to command it? You are as bad as the fancy rich guys of TFA, no conception at all of what is being wrought. Anything you want done, you’ll have to do yourself, with your own little hands.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 25 2018, @04:31AM
Sun will continue to shine for at least half a billion years and we have huge trash heaps to mine. We're not hurting on that end.
Unless, of course, there is. End of civilization doesn't mean end of engines or electricity. The laws of physics didn't change.
So it sucks. Development of societies is "uneven" [soylentnews.org], remember? If we all give up when things get difficult then who will make the next civilization and help them avoid the mistakes of the last civilization?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @06:25AM
With (assumedly) many fewer people, raw and even heavily processed material will be laying on on the surface. Need some copper? No need to mine, strip that vacant housing development.