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Comment by markx2 | Hacker News Reader

"New Zealand, considered by some to be the ideal place to wait out an apocalyptic event, is now riddled with bunkers for the tech elite. Recently reinstalled OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has an arrangement with Peter Thiel, first revealed to The New Yorker, where the pair will take a jet to one of Thiel’s New Zealand properties in the case of an apocalyptic event. In his book Survival of the Richest, media theorist Douglass Rushkoff describes meeting with a group of billionaire preppers who bombarded him with questions about how best to configure their bunkers to survive the end times."

And who will do their bidding during / after those end times?

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I assume they’ll try to repopulate the world and use their least favorite children as laborers.

> I assume they’ll try to repopulate the world

Oh, the irony if two gay men were the only option left to repopulate the world.

One would assume that one or both (for genetic diversity!) would fall on their swords for the benefit/continuance of humanity.

Right?

You're thinking about this wrong. It's not about continuing humanity. It's about continuing themselves.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Imperial_cloning_program

Won't this just devolve into a "live to die another day" situation? Most likley just a few days later?

I feel super skeptical about these "billionaire survival" compounds because they are going to require a lot of work for survival (read: hired hands). And where are these hands going to come from? If SHTF won't their pilots, drivers, security details, maids, cooks, gardeners, maintenance/mechanics crews, etc abandon them to tend to their own families? Or are these billionaires finding orphans who have no allegiance to anyone but the billionaires? Not to mention this is going to require some kind of "military style" command to prevent mutiny and ensure compliance under the threat of force. Sure, the billionaires can bury themselves in a comfortable (even luxury) bunker eating dehydrated rations for many many years, but I think I'd rather die that point. They can hide out on their yachts for about week before they run out of diesel and food, and then crew commits a mutiny.

It all seems like a really stupid expensive LARP or Howard Hughes style paranoia. IMO if SHTF for real those bunkers are worthless.

I would not be surprised if Zuck's MMA training were at least partially inspired by worries like these.

I was just thinking Zack's MMA training was to help keep rebellious support staff in line.

World War Z has a chapter about one of these places- it gets swarmed by thousands of people when shit hits the fan and the private security mutinies.

The biggest advantage of a bunker would be the first year of survival. You can comfortably wait while the population resolves itself, and later emerge with a group of trusted people (agriculturists, scientists, doctors) who are much healthier, loaded with weapons, and available to start a new society.

Who will enforce the arrangement between Peter Thiel and Sam Altman in a post apocalyptic scenario?

They'll put it on the blockchain.

> > where the pair will take a jet to one of Thiel’s New Zealand

Unless you are quite literally at the airport when the news breaks then you'd have hard time reaching it to jet to NZL

I imagine the collapse of society wont be instantaneous.

Wouldn’t be surprised if they had some algorithm that are constantly crunching through streams of global data looking for signals indicating that things are about to go bad. Thiel after all is an investor in palntir.

COVID was as slow as it could possibly be, still billionaires got caught with their pants down.

Those who fled to Fiji BVI etc did so after the first wave had ended by July 2020

> And who will do their bidding during / after those end times?

Minions wearing electric shock collars.

"They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually 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."

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prep...

I read somewhere else that they have a full time staff on site.

My wife and kids may be buried under the rubble that was my home right now, but I make 3x the local median wage, so I better stay here an protect this guy i'm not allowed to talk to or interact with....

That is stupid. They wont even let the former owners in. If you are cynical enough to build a bunker you should understand basic concepts of loyalty and how armed guards behave when you stop paying them. Maybe they are so narcissistic that they don't understand that? Or the bunkers are for way less dangerous events.

> > behave when you stop paying them

Or when money ceases to have any meaning.

Ye kinda meant that with stopped paying. But it doesn't matter. They could be paid in gold or canned food. It is the local police force and social cohesion that keeps the guards in check. You gotta be a warlord right now to expect to just show up and be in command. Or surround your self with friends, neighbours and relatives.

Whats stopping the armed guards from just taking the gold and taking everything else?

I'd imagine feeding them and letting them live in the bunker during a crisis is a compelling perk to some.

> you should understand basic concepts of loyalty

When do you think a billionaire last heard the word "no"? Perhaps they think that people actually like them for reasons beyond money?

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