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How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

theguardian.com

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Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#31

Post by tuesdayrain »

wolfgke wrote: post #19
JTbane wrote: post #6

Pretty saddening to read- instead of spending their billions to fight climate change, the rich have the "fuck you get mine" viewpoint. Hell, some of 'em probably made their fortunes on coal and oil. Then again this could just be human nature.

> Pretty saddening to read- instead of spending their billions to fight climate change A pretty good way to fight climate change would be to mostly stop breeding, because fewer people means less energy consumption and thus less climate change.

Unfortunately the people who should consider breeding less will never consider this. And anyone on HN who is conscientious enough to actually stop reproducing because of this post will probably cause a net loss for society by doing so.

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#32

Post by sp332 »

arethuza wrote: post #29
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am skeptical there will be an 'Event', something more like a gradual decline seems more likely (so, more British Empire than Roman). But if there were a complete collapse, I doubt your preparations could be really save you. Or in other words, it isn't the apocalypse if you can survive it.

The British Empire was at its peak in 1922 and was largely gone by the 1960s - I think that is actually rather faster than the decline of the Roman Empire! edit: 1992 to 1922

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Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#33

Post by dsabanin »

Steltek wrote: post #13

It's intriguing to see rich people feeling just as out of control as the rest of the planet's population. I wonder what that really says about the current state of society? It seems like wealth inequality really benefits no one at all.

Could be also that it says something about mental illness (in particular: anxiety and paranoia) being present on all the rungs of society.

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#34

Post by sp332 »

Steltek wrote: post #13

It's intriguing to see rich people feeling just as out of control as the rest of the planet's population. I wonder what that really says about the current state of society? It seems like wealth inequality really benefits no one at all.

It looks like people who have power are so used to shirking responsibility that when an actual crisis comes up they don't even seriously consider that they might be able to affect the outcome.

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#35

Post by davidw »

arethuza wrote: post #29
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am skeptical there will be an 'Event', something more like a gradual decline seems more likely (so, more British Empire than Roman). But if there were a complete collapse, I doubt your preparations could be really save you. Or in other words, it isn't the apocalypse if you can survive it.

The British Empire was at its peak in 1922 and was largely gone by the 1960s - I think that is actually rather faster than the decline of the Roman Empire! edit: 1992 to 1922

I think the point is that people in the UK are mostly happy, healthy and better off in many ways than when there was an actual empire.

That's not true of a lot of places when things 'go south'.

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#36

Post by DoreenMichele »

sp332 wrote: post #32
arethuza wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The British Empire was at its peak in 1922 and was largely gone by the 1960s - I think that is actually rather faster than the decline of the Roman Empire! edit: 1992 to 1922

-

I assume they mean 1892. But, I dunno, maybe time travel is a thing, even at the global level. ;)

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#37

Post by cmiles74 »

nohat wrote: post #28

What percentage of your networth is considered socially acceptable to spend on preparing for disasters? For a billionaire buying a new zealand vacation home is like most of us spending a couple hundred bucks on, eg a water filter, first aid kit, and non perishable food, standard preparations that FEMA recommends.

I think this is a big part of the problem. That the 1% has become so insanely wealthy that they believe it is less expensive to prepare for the end of the world rather than take on some the cost of preventing it. Their belief that it would be better to start over with a small population (the 1% themselves, obvs) then to work to improve the world as it currently stands. And, of course, the naive belief that they can make plans robust enough they might somehow survive "The Event".

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#38

Post by olefoo »

The thing is; there won't be a "the Event" there will only be a long emergency and it's already in progress. Systems won't fail all at once and new temporary systems will be built as things change.

But if these fools think that that they will be able to keep their power and influence by doing the same things that made them wealthy they will be an amusing and schadenfreude inducing sideshow that most people will barely notice because they're too busy figuring out how to beat the heat.

The way to survive the transitions we are facing now is not to use today's wealth and influence to make yourself a warlord of a post-apocalyptic desert. It's to build cooperative societies that can make deserts bloom in difficult places and provide shelter from the storms to come. You cannot expect to maintain effective technologically adept societies by fear and coercion. You must be able to offer hope and inspiration if you want assistance of any level of cognitive complexity.

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#39

Post by dogprez »

Steltek wrote: post #13

It's intriguing to see rich people feeling just as out of control as the rest of the planet's population. I wonder what that really says about the current state of society? It seems like wealth inequality really benefits no one at all.

Did you get a chance to read the Atlantic's "The Birth of a New American Aristocracy?" That's one of the paradoxes of inequality: as inequality increases, the value of your money decreases. It also increases the anxiety of the rich as the fall from their lofty perch is more dramatic.

Re: How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse

#40

Post by dmode »

ALittleLight wrote: post #7

Maybe I'm just in a skeptical mood this morning, but I have a hard time believing that a cabal of really rich CEO types are going to turn to a single person to field technology questions ranging from crypto currency preferences to how you manage your guards in a dystopian future. The intro to the article has the author reviewing a wide and diverse number of topics with these business guys for an hour. It made me curi…

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought. Note that their questions were also not limited to technology, but veered into philosophical questions like "how do I maintain authority". If the author is an expert in that many fields, probably deserves his speaking fees.
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