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Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

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Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#121

Post by LyndsySimon »

Alex3917 wrote: post #37

So this is actually something I've thought a lot about, in terms of whether it's actually rational to be a prepper or if it's just a fun hobby. In nominal terms, your risk of dying in a society-wide collapse is actually larger than your risk of dying in a car accident.[1] So if you wouldn't think twice about taking basic steps to lower your chances of vehicle death (e.g. wearing a seatbelt) then it's absolutely ratio…

I did some math on my end too - I decided that at my weight, I was more likely to die or experience a great reduction in quality of life due to complications incidental to obesity than anything else. As a result, I'm focused on dropping weight and getting healthier before anything else :)

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#122

Post by LyndsySimon »

vkou wrote: post #89
shuntress wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would be the mechanism by which which two previously separate but each fully legitimate (in their own network) ledgers interact? Not trying to poke holes; Just curious. E: To clarify, imagine that the North American Free Peoples Conglomerate and the New China Society finally re-establish contact between the two continents for the first time in hundreds of years. They have each been running fully functional bitco…

The one burning more electricity on mining new blocks would win, and the other ledger would be invalid, after the point of divergence.

... but the individual transactions on the losing chain could would still be valid and could be incorporated into the winning blockchain. It wouldn't be quite a simple as "the shortest chain loses"

Oh, and the country with the lowest amount of energy spent mining would win. Both countries hashing after unification would work on the chain with the lowest difficulty, which would be the one with the least hashing power. :)

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#123

Post by flukus »

sjg007 wrote: post #108
lawless123 wrote: post #3

>lot of people stocking up on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, A post apocalypse in which internet survives seems far fetched.

Well.. Darpa designed arpanet (the precursor) to the internet to persist in the event of a nuclear holocaust. All of those bunkers probably have ham radios (thanks Jon Conner) and redundant internet connections.

I was designed to survive a nuclear attack and be able to retaliate, not to survive long term societal collapse.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#124

Post by flukus »

vkou wrote: post #66

It amuses me greatly that Peter Thiel is listed as one of the people who will bug out if things turn bad. I suppose that's the backup plan when his libertarian utopia doesn't work out?

Doesn't he get entry to whatever presidential compound there is?

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#125

Post by Atheros »

che_shirecat wrote: post #83
halomru wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"collapse of government" doesn't have to mean total collapse of infrastructure. Providing infrastructure is harder without government, but if you charge for the infrastructure anyway, you can just increase prices. It's of course a problem for low income workers, but here we are talking about the super rich.

wouldn't self-interested infrastructure providers be able to intercept/modify bitcoin traffic for their own gain? BGP hijacking on steroids?

They would be able to block your spends and could keep you from connecting to the network but that's it.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#126

Post by Atheros »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #122
vkou wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one burning more electricity on mining new blocks would win, and the other ledger would be invalid, after the point of divergence.

... but the individual transactions on the losing chain could would still be valid and could be incorporated into the winning blockchain. It wouldn't be quite a simple as "the shortest chain loses" Oh, and the country with the lowest amount of energy spent mining would win. Both countries hashing after unification would work on the chain with the lowest difficulty, which would be the one with the least hashing power.…

You need to read more about how Bitcoin works.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#127

Post by Atheros »

floatboth wrote: post #80

> “If I had a billion dollars, I wouldn’t buy a bunker,” Elli Kaplan, the C.E.O. of the digital health startup Neurotrack, told me. “I would reinvest in civil society and civil innovation. My view is you figure out even smarter ways to make sure that something terrible doesn’t happen.” At least there's one reasonable person in this circus. Also: https://youtu.be/XanyPq5BcoA?t=52m18s

So I take it that neither you nor Elli Kaplan have home insurance?

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#129

Post by bootload »

Tomminn wrote: post #117
bootload wrote: post #104

“I typically ask people, ‘So you’re worried about the pitchforks. How much money have you donated to your local homeless shelter?’ This connects the most, in my mind, to the realities of the income gap. All the other forms of fear that people bring up are artificial.” I like Max Levchins idea behind this statement. The underlying anxiety shown by a lot of the characters interviewed in this article display a real huma…

In NZ there is free healthcare, free accident insurance and a decent welfare program. Being a capitalist country, there is still income inequality, but the situation is no way near as bad as it is in the US because of these safety nets for the bottom quartile. The homicide rate in NZ is less than 1 per 100,000 inhabitants. And almost all of those homicides are solved, because the police force is large compared to the…

"the situation is no way near as bad as it is in the US because of these safety nets for the bottom quartile."

I'm not kiwi-bashing, simply pointing out that rich foreign individuals, using NZ as a bolt-hole are faced with similar situation, just in a more dispersed population.

   "Of all New Zealand children, 22% live in 
    families where the major caregiver receives 
    income from a social security benefit.[0] 
    That is around 230,000, or one fifth, of 
    New Zealand children"
This is supporting what you say wrt to welfare, about the same murder rate (0.9 compared to 1.0) to Aus. [1] The biggest thing I noticed last time I was in the North Island was Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi). For the Māori a means of citizenship and redress for stolen land. There is nothing like this in Australia (to its shame) and while I can see the results of standards of living supplied by the state, I'm not convinced the type of systemic, race based poverty is not found in NZ like the US. [2]

I still remember the effects of Roger Douglas [3] on NZ in the 80's/90's while studying with my Kiwi mates.

It is worse in Aus, the country is geographically bigger, without a treaty and to compare the two places, Australian Aboriginal males have a life expectancy of 69.1 [4] but from anecdotally it's more like 50. In NZ it is 72.8 ('13).

"I would know. I'm in it."

Kia ora @Tomminn

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_poverty_in_New_Zealand#c...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Māori_people#Socioeconomic_cha...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogernomics

[4] http://aihw.gov.au/deaths/life-expectancy/#indigenous

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#130

Post by LyndsySimon »

Atheros wrote: post #126
LyndsySimon wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... but the individual transactions on the losing chain could would still be valid and could be incorporated into the winning blockchain. It wouldn't be quite a simple as "the shortest chain loses" Oh, and the country with the lowest amount of energy spent mining would win. Both countries hashing after unification would work on the chain with the lowest difficulty, which would be the one with the least hashing power.…

You need to read more about how Bitcoin works.

I've been involved since early 2011. I'm quite aware of how Bitcoin works.
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