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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: 2) by cubancigar11 on Wednesday July 25 2018, @05:37AM (5 children)
Rarely, but not never. In a world after "The Event", the poor won't be that poor, relatively speaking. All they need is a messiah.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday July 25 2018, @06:11AM (4 children)
Example?
"In a world after "The Event", the poor won't be that poor, relatively speaking."
See, that's a tricky thing to evaluate beforehand. How much of the wealth survives?
The fiat money may not be worth anything anymore, but the things that it bought are.
A wealthy person who saw this coming and spent their money wisely could buy things that would still be useful, even more useful, than before. But of course that depends on the details of an uncertain scenario to some degree as well.
Still, a hideout far from population centers, stocked with supplies *and books*, and some way to get there in a hurry, could do wonders for your chances of survival. Where it seems like it would get tricky would be what these guys are imagining - not a hideout where you and yours can lay low, but a private army that will make you a king after. Setting your sights so high could lay the seeds of your destruction, as we've been discussing - now you have to worry about your army - you have to feed them, house them, keep them happy. That's going to take a lot more money and it might well make you less safe, especially if you fail to take care of them well.
"All they need is a messiah."
And I'm sure there will be many of them recruiting, as there was before.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday July 25 2018, @02:26PM (2 children)
With the breakdown of law and order that comes with a serious crisis, who owns those things according to current law and custom is completely meaningless. Those things might exist, but that doesn't mean you're the one that gets to use them. If you have a loyal force of people with guns, you might be able to hang onto some of it, but then again you're going to be heavily outnumbered by a desperate mob.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday July 25 2018, @03:00PM
Perhaps not one, but many, small hideouts. Each stocked with carefully chosen supplies, each locked and equipped with booby traps.
Now, your ownership of those items is less shaky. You know where they are - and no one else does. You know how to access them safely - and no one else does. Your ownership is now based on your own knowledge and preparation, rather than just legal title.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 26 2018, @03:27AM
Unless you kill the mob first. Then you won't be heavily outnumbered. Technology provides major force multipliers. For example, a few machine gun nests in a choke point with good terrain advantages and nearly unlimited ammunition will hold off a mob no matter how big. Remember even now, there's vastly more bullets in the world than there are people. That situation won't change in favor of people in a post-apocalyptic world.
The real challenge will come when the mobs are replaced by paramilitary forces that have some experience at cracking such strongholds.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Thursday July 26 2018, @02:57PM
You misunderstood. Who does the sellsword follow when in a room with 1 great man - a rich holy king?
The "Event" we will face, the idea that we can plan to safeguard is ludicrously hilarious. There will at least 1 rich "asshole" who will turn out to be holy and be hailed as a king. That is what all these "assholes" and us all should plan for. The last rich holy king was hailed as a messiah and people are still killing and getting killed over him thousands of years later.