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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 The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday July 25 2018, @10:19AM (5 children)
True enough on a species level but not remotely on an individual level. There are plenty of people who not only don't need others to survive but would actually enjoy the solitude. I am not one of them, mind you. I enjoy arguing too much.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 25 2018, @04:14PM
We won't need that "skill" after the apocalypse.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Wednesday July 25 2018, @06:11PM (3 children)
Sorry, but the examples of "people who not only don't need others to survive" is full of frauds. I'm sure that some exist, but they wouldn't advertise themselves, and there aren't many. Now if you'd said "people who not only don't need others to survive for a couple of months", or even "a couple of years" I'd be more likely to agree with you. But do remember that even the the 1800's the "mountain men" depended on civilization to supply, and replace, their weaponry. I'm not sure how well those that "went native" did, but some of the AmerInds considered that a young man being sent out to fend for himself during the season of plenty (6 months starting sometime in spring) to be a great travail, and a profound initiation. So even if you grow up in a "stone age" community learning how to live off the land, having to do so by yourself is not a trivial exercise. And that was before the land had been as hunted and fished out as it currently is.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 26 2018, @01:19AM (2 children)
You should go fishing before you opine on the state of our fishing holes. Mind you, it will take you a decade or more to be able to reliably fill your belly more often than not with a rod and reel. At least four before the old farts consider you worth listening to.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday July 26 2018, @06:11PM (1 child)
Your comparison time line is too short. And you haven't needed to reliably feed yourself, where not catching means you don't eat that day.
The current fishing is managed by the government to maintain an "good supply" (varies in interpretation) of fish. That's what fishing licenses pay for. It isn't expected to be a main source of protein. (Things like American Indians on reservation at salmon runs are exceptions.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday July 26 2018, @07:04PM
I haven't needed to, no. That doesn't mean I haven't done a large enough study to be fairly certain that I could though. You don't really need scientific motivation to make yourself go fishing most every day.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.