Survial of the richest

[Ringo Stalin]

Survival of the Richest

The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind

onezero.medium.com

"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...
The audiences are rarely interested in learning about these technologies or their potential impacts beyond the binary choice of whether or not to invest in them. But money talks, so I took the gig.
After I arrived, 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...
Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern.
Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? 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?”

 

[GluteusMaximus]

The scum benefiting most from destroying our world are looking to completely avoid any PERSONAL consequences for their actions. Happily, they'll die off when the rest of us do, maybe after a few years of clinging to the rim living a life worse than death.

 

[Ringo Stalin]

World Historical Significance of October revolution1917:
Bringing "wild capitalism" on the planet into a less cannibalistic form, from 10-12 working hours a day to 8 hours, the very formulation of the question of the social state in various countries. Social benefits and pensions. etc.
And mostly the very fact that the bourgeoisie and the monarchies did not destroy the planet in atomic wars, as they used chemical weapons in WW1 without a shadow of doubt and a bomb at the end of WWII

 

[NatMorton]

Survival of the Richest

The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind

onezero.medium.com

"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...
The audiences are rarely interested in learning about these technologies or their potential impacts beyond the binary choice of whether or not to invest in them. But money talks, so I took the gig.
After I arrived, 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...
Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern.
Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? 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?”

Beware of any political narrative that relies on anecdotal tales of villainy.

 

[Clara007]

Beware of any political narrative that relies on anecdotal tales of villainy.

I had no idea you were so far gone, Nat. My deepest sympathies.

 

[NatMorton]

I had no idea you were so far gone, Nat. My deepest sympathies.

Yes, I'm so "far gone" in find fear tactics unpersuasive.

Want to join me?

 

[Clara007]

Wow--there's a lot to digest in the piece but anyone who is willing to POINT OUT the NEW attitudes rising to the surface needs to be applauded because TOO MANY have fallen into a deep pit of self-serving assumptions.
So thanks, Douglas Rushkoff.

How about this statement?
This freed everyone from the moral implications of their activities.
Or this phrase?
So instead of considering the practical ethics of impoverishing and exploiting the many in the name of the few......
And the last paragraph?
Being human is not about individual survival or escape. It’s a team sport. Whatever future humans have, it will be together.

Many (actually MOST) of us have been asking these same questions ever since the RISE of the 1% and the election of Donald J Trump. Apparently we were naive enough to think that America was--at one time--exactly what Reagan said it was: That shining city on a hill. AND we knew HOW we got to the top of that hill.
We got to the top of that hill by SUPPOSING/IMAGINING something astonishing:
ALL people are created equal. All people are endowed with certain rights and included in those rights SHOULD be some semblance of happiness. AND happiness is best served up with healthcare, education, housing, and a living wage.
The author is right. Our future is based on that TEAM mentality.
AND we the people USED to understand that. Before. Trump.

 

[NatMorton]

AND we the people USED to understand that. Before. Trump.

Yes, absolutely. For that's what built this country from its very beginning: welfare subsidies. For the poor cannot truly be happy unless they're dependent on the compulsory, charitable contribution of others. After all, why work to make your life better when the labor of others can do it for you?

#Gimme

 

[Clara007]

Yes, I'm so "far gone" in find fear tactics unpersuasive.

Want to join me?

Okay. I get it. You think this article is unpersuasive because it smacks of fear tactics. AND I see this article as something to break down and absorb by parcels. Not all. But some.
For everything, there's a season, Nat. Some seasons CAN BE filled with fear or are you one of those lucky few who has led a charmed life? If so, I congratulate you and hope you will always BE so fortunate.

For the rest of us, a little wake-up call isn't such a bad thing.
I see this as a shot over the bow---a PAY ATTENTION piece. Pay attention, Nat. Charmed lives rarely last forever.

 

[NatMorton]

Okay. I get it. You think this article is unpersuasive because it smacks of fear tactics. AND I see this article as something to break down and absorb by parcels. Not all. But some.
For everything, there's a season, Nat. Some seasons CAN BE filled with fear or are you one of those lucky few who has led a charmed life? If so, I congratulate you and hope you will always BE so fortunate.

For the rest of us, a little wake-up call isn't such a bad thing.
I see this as a shot over the bow---a PAY ATTENTION piece. Pay attention, Nat. Charmed lives rarely last forever.

Clara, with all due respect, you have absolutely no idea what kind of life I've led or of the challenges that I've faced -- just as I have no idea what you've had to deal with in your life. That you find yourself having to assert things about me of which you know nothing should be a kind of wake up call for you. You're having to invent things to justify your argument; not a good sign.