"Survival of the Richest"

[BCG]

Survival of the Richest

The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind

by Douglas Rushkoff
July 05, 2018



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

I was ushered into what I thought was the green room. But instead of being wired with a microphone or taken to a stage, 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.

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.

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.

complete article at https://medium.com/s/futurehuman/survival-of-the-richest-9ef6cddd0cc1

[Totem Polar]

I agree with the article’s conclusion, despite being pretty much an introvert by nature.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Your tattooed, neck bearded, veteran of wars security forces will :

1. Beat up, kill and/or enslave you after the apocalypse.
2. They will make your trophy wife and daughter into harem slaves. Or said females will be smart enough to dump the Trump physique class for the warrior class.
3. Your male child - Bryce Tanner Smithson, III will be lunch or let loose in the wilderness.


No fortress will last long against the mutant mobs of leather clad dude with mohawks

[ranger]

There is a chapter in most zombie novels that covers this issue - specifically World War Z.

[Sensei]

I’m not so sure there is going to be “an event.” Instead, we are far more likely to continue down our path of a death from a thousand pin pricks. Moreover, the strategies for surviving an event vs. a slow collapse are very different.

[OlongJohnson]

.....

[Chance]

A SpaceX launch is only $62 million. If this planet's fucked, maybe they could fly to the moon.

[Joe in PNG]

I’m not so sure there is going to be “an event.” Instead, we are far more likely to continue down our path of a death from a thousand pin pricks. Moreover, the strategies for surviving an event vs. a slow collapse are very different.

Rome didn't fall in a day- it ticked around until roughly 1453.
If we can avoid a long and total war, I suspect our current society will "enjoy" a similar slow dissolve and collapse.

[blues]

Rome didn't fall in a day- it ticked around until roughly 1453.
If we can avoid a long and total war, I suspect our current society will "enjoy" a similar slow dissolve and collapse.

Like Metamucil making its way inexorably through a system...with a similar end result.

[Joe in PNG]

Like Metamucil making its way inexorably through a system...with a similar end result.

It takes a long, long, long time for it to the end result to happen. Centuries, unless you get a long and involved total war.