OpenAI's CEO Once Bragged About His Hoard of Guns and Gas Masks

It's associated with the enemy in the culture war.

Nothing at all. This used to be common practice after fun events like the great depression, WWII, etc... I grew up with the stories from those times and watched how my relatives would prep, can and store foods because they knew things can go sideways at the drop of a hat. They experienced it first hand. Current generations in first world countries for the most part have not yet had the pleasure and thus normalcy bias and denial are stronger.

If I lived in Ohio right now for example, I'd want to have a large pile of gas masks too. There are people in America who desperately want to have these supplies right now for an emergency, and the media is mocking somebody who is prepared? Say what?

I'm not 100% sure of the psychology of it, but I think that people that are deeply trusting of the government are very disturbed that preppers exist because preppers are showing that they're not trusting the government at all which I think sets off some kind of warning in peoples' heads that maybe they are wrong and they don't really know how to process that. Hence, the extreme hatred of preppers displayed in much of the media, despite their activity usually not harming anybody else.

To be perfectly fair, on the flipside there are extreme preppers who seem to have some kind of unhealthy compulsion. And despite being relatively poor, some spend much of their time and money digging out full bomb shelters and filling them with years worth of food and canned goods, which doesn't seem healthy. But if you're doing a reasonable amount of preparation, and you're reasonably well off financially to afford this modest effort, kudos to you for wanting to ensure your family has the best chance in an emergency situation.

I think if it wasn't such a political hot button in current US culture, they might have even recommended owning a firearm or two.

https://www.ready.gov/

Publicly bragging in a way that gets widely reposted in the internet about your plans (including the contents and location of your emergency cache and bugout location) in case the AI you are actively engaged in creating becomes malevolent and hostile to humanity?

Well, for one thing, unless its entirely misdirection, it shows a lack of judgement with regard to the threat, because you just negated all the resources that went into preparing.

I personally disagree with that view. I think that post-collapse longevity is going to depend on small communities, or tribes, if you will. It behooves the smart prepper to cultivate relationships now and a good way to do that is by doing good for society.

And I'd argue that OpenAI believes it is working to strengthen civil society. I don't know whether I agree with them or not, but I do believe that AI is just at the beginning of changing our society in truly staggering ways that cannot be undone.

I am beginning to wonder if we'll have a "21st Century Amish" where people choose to live in <=2000s technology.

Prepping should be iterative based on the likely scenarios in your region/the world. Natural disaster, pandemic, food supply disruptions, gasoline/diesel shortages or embargo, tap water contamination, chemical release, widespread breakdown of civil services (even if temporary).

Fire or earthquake in California. Hurricanes in the east/gulf. Chemical spills via train or in Houston/industrial areas. Bomb cyclones in the north. Water treatment plants/pipes failing (Flint; Jackson MI). Lack of water in AZ.

Stay in decent shape. Have water/water purification on hand. Have emergency rations/canned food available for a week or more for each person in the house. Have backups of all critical digital data on a portable drive. Have a decent medkit. Have a radio that can receive weather bands which are also used for civil service announcements - or even buy several baofengs and use them on the FRS band (against FCC regs, but who cares in a crisis).

Some bug-in supplies, and a bugout bag, are good things to have for a variety of reasons.