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Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

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Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#81

Post by maxerickson »

VLM wrote: post #78
dmode wrote: post #46

Having grown up in poverty in a third world country that is extremely chaotic, the doomsday obsession in America is laughable and a little disturbing at the same time. Society doesn't break down like that. Can someone explain why is there such paranoia in the US about societal collapse ? It it video games, movies, media frenzy, hyper partisan politics ? All of it ? I know people who have created bunkers and stock pil…

The topic is example number 258726 of the most photogenic controversial clickbait not really having much to do with the reality of anything. "Society doesn't break down like that." Unfortunately it does, in the USA. See the aftermath of hurricane Katrina for an example of how well we get along when things are temporarily bad. Also the geography of the USA frankly sucks. We're rich and its not because our weather is u…

So compared to the actual storm, how much damage did looting do, and how many people were murdered?

You are claiming that they are clear evidence of how terrible we are, so I think it is fair to ask you to show the work.

Because another aftermath of Katrina is all the help and aid that poured in over the following days, months and years.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#82

Post by Alex3917 »

woofyman wrote: post #65
dmode wrote: post #46

Having grown up in poverty in a third world country that is extremely chaotic, the doomsday obsession in America is laughable and a little disturbing at the same time. Society doesn't break down like that. Can someone explain why is there such paranoia in the US about societal collapse ? It it video games, movies, media frenzy, hyper partisan politics ? All of it ? I know people who have created bunkers and stock pil…

Most of it is due to Fundamental Christian beliefs along with extreme right wing political beliefs.

> Most of it is due to Fundamental Christian beliefs along with extreme right wing political beliefs.

I haven't read the methodology, but supposedly over 40% of Americans believe the rapture is coming by 2050. And the rapture and the apocalypse should be mutually exclusive, in the sense that if you really think Jesus is going to save you then there isn't much reason to be stockpiling cans of spaghettios.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#83

Post by che_shirecat »

halomru wrote: post #77
cafebabbe wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, "completely immune". Good luck accessing your wallet without power plants...

"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?

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#84

Post by nickff »

ucaetano wrote: post #58
nickff wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Envy does not justify murder. Most modern philosophers have taken the view that envy itself is immoral.

Try to explain that to a hungry crowd watching your well-fed family leaving a bunker. "Oh please, what you're doing is morally wrong. Shame on you!"

I'm not saying that immorality alone will stop many people, but your rationale proves too much, and would stop you from intervening in any immoral act.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#85

Post by Karunamon »

bambax wrote: post #55
Karunamon wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you elaborate on B a bit? I don't quite see the moral value judgment in surviving while society collapses.

Everyone is part of society. If society "collapses" (which can take many forms), the responsible, respectable reaction is to stay with it and try to restore it, not cut it loose -- retract to a shelter somewhere with "lots of guns and ammo" to wait it out. When disaster strikes it may be very natural and expected to save oneself, if possible. That's survival instinct. But prepare for it is not admirable, to say the l…

But at the end of the day, you're not restoring anything if you're dead due to lack of food, water, or shelter, or violent action by someone else. That's what's confusing me about your view, here.

There's a reason these basics are at the very base of Maslow's hierarchy[1], and that's because without them, such niceties as polite society aren't possible. It would be foolish to not concentrate on having the basics available.

1: http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow-pyramid.jpg

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#86

Post by infinite8s »

jly wrote: post #63

> The fears vary, but many worry that, as artificial intelligence takes away a growing share of jobs, there will be a backlash against Silicon Valley, America’s second-highest concentration of wealth. (Southwestern Connecticut is first.) “I’ve heard this theme from a bunch of people,” Hoffman said. “Is the country going to turn against the wealthy? Is it going to turn against technological innovation? Is it going to…

The current policy proposals being floated since the election are moving in the opposite direction to mitigating those effects.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#87

Post by infinite8s »

sodafountan wrote: post #70
awfgylbcxhrey wrote: post #51

we are skating on really thin cultural ice right now. Nope. Not even close. We survived the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam War protests. For all our online angst and whining, we're not even 1/10th as far toward the tipping point as we were back then.

Not to mention a Civil War, World War II and the Cold War. I think we'll all be alright.

Those were all human-created events. What happens when we have a super-volcano eruption and the world has another mini-ice age, and there are famines across the globe? Or the coastal flooding that is predicted to happen by 2050 if we continue current warming trends. We can't just force nature to give up through a superior show of force (unlike winning a war).

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#89

Post by vkou »

shuntress wrote: post #40
drcode wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, Bitcoin technically doesn't need a true internet, just an ad-hoc mesh network. (Not that those will be easy to come by, either, but they would be somewhat more feasible to establish.)

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.

Re: Doomsday Prep for the Super-rich

#90

Post by infinite8s »

omegaworks wrote: post #69

Glamor-prepping, glepping: the ultimate fuck-you-I-got-mine to any young people still struggling to come up in the society that these wealthy people wield an undue influence over. What happens when everybody at the top has their private island sanctuary but still holds power in the society we all have to live in?

How will they enforce that power? It will either require humans (of a different social status) or robotic weapons/mercenaries.
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