The billionaires and millionaires of Silicon Valley, the new feudal lords, are apparently great survivors. This is understandable. They enjoy the spoils of their bargain with the working machine and want to preserve as much of the high life as they can. Of course, with all this influence, they could save the entire world.
But no, this is how they are going to leave us and their dignity to perish.
10. Larry Page's Desert Island Hideaway
One of the many tech titans who fears death is Google co-founder Larry Page. Calico Labs He's working hard on his quixotic struggle with death. Meanwhile, however, he still has to weather the storm.
His survival plan, at least in the event of a pandemic, is to hide inon his island in Fiji . That's what he did. during COVID-19 . Under the pretext of delivering medical supplies—and because he is a billionaire—he was allowed into the isolated (and therefore otherwise safe) country when it was closed to everyone else, flying in on his own plane from Hawaii.
It's clear he tried to keep it secret, forcing state media to publish his story of the visit and hiding all traces on Google. But no amount of influence could silence the disgruntled sailor who spilled the beans to the rest of the world.
9. Marvin Liao's Medieval Armory
Citing the example of Ukraine, tech investor Marvin Liao says there's always a winner at the gate. He's also worried about the pandemic and the looming financial collapse. But he's prepared. Apparently, he's "put together" arsenal of non-firearms and took archery lessons" so he wouldn't have to rely on ammunition.
He also emphasizes martial arts, knife fighting, and fitness in general. He says being able to run without getting out of breath is vital. But so is financial freedom. Like Jesse Eisenberg in Zombieland , Liao has several slogans that he hopes will help him survive. «Physically healthy and financially savvy» - one of them. There is also «"Don't apologize, be better."» and, encouraging for the centillionaire survivalist, «"No man (woman) is an island.".
Liao, unlike many on this list, believes in teamwork—at least in post-apocalyptic combat. "There's strength in numbers," he notes, "and three almost always beat one... no matter how well trained they are.".
8. Manifest Destiny by Sam Altman
Sam Altman, a billionaire centurion, is the head of OpenAI (the company responsible for monstrous chatbot GPT-3 ), has been proud of its survival rate for several years now. Back in 2016 he told The New York Times , which collects "weapons, gold, potassium iodide, antibiotics, batteries, water, gas masks from the Israel Defense Forces and a large plot of land in Big Sur.".
In another article entitled «Sam Altman's Manifest Destiny» , describes his "complete lack of interest in ineffective people, which, unfortunately, includes most of us." It also lists some of the scenarios he has prepared for: deadly AI; a nuclear war over resources; and the release of a synthetic virus.
Social collapse is another one. When it happens, it will flee to New Zealand with his friend Peter Thiel.
7. Peter Thiel's New Zealand Eyesore
«"Yankee, remember this. Aotearoa New Zealand is not your little refuge of last resort," the message says on the survivalist website Modern Survivalist. This is a growing sentiment in New Zealand. The island nation's self-sufficiency, moderate climate, lack of enemies, and arable land are appealing to anxious Americans. The fact that it's here was filming "« The Lord of the Rings, is a bonus for Peter Thiel, who named his companies after the trilogy.
Investor in the field of anti-aging and cryogenic research, Thiel is afraid of death, which is understandable, given his belief in hell . Not only does he want to vampirize children, he supports authoritarianism and hoped that Trump will become a dictator . He also bankrupted Gawker for exposing him. He, like expressed herself Guardian , «"the human emblem of the moral vortex at the center of the market.".
Naturally, he wants to continue. So he lied and bribed He made his way to New Zealand and bought a city-sized chunk of the South Island. When the story hit the press, locals were outraged. Despite Thiel's promises to invest in the country, everyone knew why he was there: to survive the collapse of Western civilization. Fortunately, his plans for a fortress, which included a spa and a theater, were considered an eyesore by the Kiwis and rejected.
6. Bill Gates's secret hiding places
Bill Gates, as Ice Cube said , "bunker bitch." He's among many panicked wealthy Americans flocking to companies like Vivos, which specialize in extracting money from billionaires in exchange for apocalypse bunkers. According to Vivos founder Robert Vicino, " Gates has huge shelters under each of his houses, in Rancho Santa Fe and in Washington.".
He joins the ranks of many other narcissists—bankers, movie stars, athletes—who, according to The Hollywood Reporter , shelling out millions for protection. However, they're not just worried about World War III; what they really want to hide from is us. Among their main fears is unrest caused by economic collapse. This tells us everything we need to know about their sense of civic duty, as well as their views on the future. The CFO of Ultimate Bunker, another elite survival firm, said that "everyone [in these circles] thinks we're doomed, no matter who's elected.".
But in reality, they're doomed, no matter how much they spend. Bunkers aren't magic. All it would take is a hungry horde of veteran Marines with high-level bunker-busting skills.
5. Mark Zuckerberg's Recolonization of Kauai
Mark Zuckerberg is proud of his Kauai estate, but he doesn't want you to know how he got it. It wasn't always 750 acres. The original plot was apparently too small for his ironic obsession with privacy, so he forced his neighbors to sell—just as he had done before in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Lake Tahoe. Only this time, his "neighbors" were Native Hawaiians, and their plots— lands kuleana , promised by colonists in the past. Those who resisted Zuckerberg's land grab, filed a lawsuit . And to add insult to injury, there were burials on his land, forcing local residents to ask permission to visit.
He said he wants to "put down roots" here, but some think that simply means creating a refuge «"in case society collapses.". He clearly doesn't care about making friends with the locals; he built walls around their land and surrounded himself with henchmen.
He also did considerably less than nothing for many of the island's homeless residents.
4. Larry Ellison's Super-Secret Master Plan
Larry Ellison, according to Bob Sutton, author of the book "« No Butts Rule »", "at 25-30 more times than an asshole »" than Steve Jobs. Not only was the aging software billionaire a political megadonor, he also conquered an entire Hawaiian island. His personal mantra, which he stole from Genghis Khan, is: "It's not enough for me to succeed—everyone else must fail.".
For just $300 million of his $100 billion fortune, he purchased 981 TP3T of Lanai, a 90,000-acre estate. As for the people who lived there, in true colonial fashion, he enslaved them overnight, becoming their overlord, their landowner (on a strict 30-day lease), or both. But that's not the point. Since the onset of COVID-19, when he himself moved to the island, changes have been gathering momentum. These include Lanai's first "longevity spa.".
Allison says she's committed to sustainability, but locals say This «"Waha"» ("nonsense**"). So far, he's done nothing for the wildlife or ecology. However, there are some indications that he wants to make the island self-sufficient. He has scientists monitoring rainfall and plans for a desalination plant and a hydroponic farm. However, these won't belong to the island's rightful owners. Secret visits by the likes of Tom Cruise and Benjamin Netanyahu suggest that Ellison is building a retreat for the wealthy. We may never know. As Bloomberg notes , Ellison "has not released many details of his master plan to the public.".
3. Elon Musk's Mad Rush to Mars
Elon Musk worries about everything: climate change , artificial intelligence, population collapse , World War III... So it's no surprise that of all the (rational) contingency plans on this list, his is the most ambitious: Space Migration via Mars.
To be fair to the billionaire, he's not just trying to save himself—he's trying to save the species. In fact, he plans to land a million people on the Red Planet, 100 per ship, over the course of several decades. He even plans to lower the ticket price from $10 billion to $200,000. And while that's still too much for most, he denies it's an "emergency escape route for rich people." There's a "good chance you'll die" on a mission to Mars, he says, but "the thrill is for those who... survive.".
Among other things, he imagines "pizzerias," "great bars," and the illusion of super-strength in Earth's 38% gravity. "Mars would be a great place to travel," he says., - a planet of opportunities.". Veteran astronauts disagree. Stanley Love, who spent over 300 hours in space and lived at a base in Antarctica, insists that life on Mars will be «"terrible.". Everything would have to be rationed. People would become claustrophobic. And the low Martian gravity would also reduce their muscle mass and bone density, making the colonists weaker and more prone to fractures. Even if they found their way back to Earth, they wouldn't return to their lives.
2. Jeff Bezos's impossible space dream
Like many billionaires, especially in tech, Jeff Bezos is heavily involved in life extension. One of his major investments since stepping down as Amazon CEO in 2021 was Altos Labs, a longevity research lab. He seems obsessed with the passing of time, as he has also thrown millions into «The 10,000-Year Clock» inside the mountain (which some suspect are doomsday clock ).
But, like Elon Musk, he hopes to save the planet, not just himself. Expecting that humans will exhaust every viable energy source on Earth within the next few centuries, Bezos intends to send us into space. In a wild speech based on the ideas of physicist Gerard K. O'Neill, he envisioned settlements aboard cylinders orbiting the solar system. Each colony (of the millions he envisions) would be built by robots using lunar materials and launched into space by catapult. They would stretch for miles in a row to accommodate a million people, and feature alternating strips of land and windows, as well as mirrors and solar panels for energy. He says different colonies could have their own themes and features, such as replicas of ancient cities, wilderness areas, zero-gravity recreational colonies, and so on.
Fortunately, there are many obstacles (technology, cost, social organization, etc.); because the main problem is Bezos himself. Besides his own contribution to climate change and individualistic consumerism, his treatment of workers as Amazon's CEO suggests he doesn't truly care about people. In fact, there's every reason to believe his "colonies" will be nothing more than glorified prisons—or "worker cities in space.", as NBC put it .
1. The Escape of Dmitry Itskov в Matrix
Dmitry Itskov, «"godfather" of the Runet, wants to celebrate his 10,000th birthday. Needless to say, the odds are stacked against him. As his manifesto states, "civilization faces a series of global crises… threatening the human environment and our very existence as a species." His solution, however, isn't what you might expect after following Musk and Bezos into space; instead, he'll jettison his body.
By 2045, he hopes to evolve into a holographic nanobot avatar—or at least into a metaverse. Of course, this will be a gradual process. For example, he believes we'll see the first generation of basic robot avatars deployed in hazardous environments (e.g., by emergency services, miners, etc.). Then they'll be used as body replacements for the disabled (the paralyzed, the terminally ill, etc.). According to Itskov's schedule , We should be at this stage by 2027. Next will be the transfer of individual consciousness into these bodies. In other words, by 2035, if we go back to the timeline, everyone will have "the possibility of cybernetic immortality." Ten years after that, we will effectively become a new species with "bodies composed of nanorobots… and capable of taking any form.".
It is obvious that Itskov is a little behind schedule, so now the accent is done on the metaverse or eternal life in the Matrix.