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https://freedium.cfd/https://medium.com/the-panopticon-publication/the-ultra-rich-wont-survive-the-apocalypse-66572fe58106>
'In 2017, the renowned media theorist, author, and professor Douglas Rushkoff
got invited to speak at an event he assumed would be full of investment
bankers. Instead, Rushkoff was ushered into a backroom with five ultra-wealthy
men from the upper echelon of the hedge fund world.
MIT Technology Review ranks Rushkoff as the world's sixth most influential
thinker for his work on how digital technology and media shape culture,
economics, and society. However, the men in the room had little interest in his
information about the future of technology. Instead, they wanted to know about
a potential apocalypse resulting from environmental collapse, social unrest, a
pandemic, nukes, or just about every other event horizon that would pull
society into a black hole and result in something similar to the video game and
hit Amazon series
Fallout.
The men peppered him with questions about areas that would be the least
affected — like New Zealand. Rushkoff recognized that the men were, indeed,
curious about the future of tech, but instead of a world that had turned into a
utopia, they expected it to become a dystopian hellscape. They had no interest
in how to course correct the coming "event" as they called it, but in how they
could insulate themselves from any effects. A year after the meeting, Rushkoff
wrote a seminal — and viral — article about his meeting with these
ultra-wealthy men on
Medium, which became the basis of his book
Survival of
the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires.
Like many others, I read the article with horror. The moment that shocked
readers came when Rushkoff realized the conversation had turned sinister. He
writes:
"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 billionaires listed in Rushkoff's article suggest solutions like having
special combination locks on their food supplies that only they know or forcing
their security teams to wear disciplinary collars in return for their survival.
The article continues talking about the rich and ultra-wealthy's escape plans,
bunkers, and how they've largely checked out of our society. But the question
they never could fully answer or address was the one the CEO posed —
how do I
maintain control over my security teams? When I read the article in 2018, I
laughed and mused to myself, "Well, they won't. They'll be the first to die."
Now, I know I was right.'
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
