The billionaires have been gaming this out for a while now but they are deeply worried enough about how to keep their security from killing them to consult with “thought leaders” and, I’m sure, science fiction writers. For instance, here’s Douglas Rushkoff’s recent report on their questions to him:
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Isn’t that how the Mamluks gained power?
Also the Jannisaries
And numerous Roman bodyguards.
Do they not teach history to Ayn-caps?
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I’m assuming that a “and who says video games aren’t educational?” would be too snide for court; but someone trying the “but having to explain to my children why people despise what I do and represent” self pity would certainly make it tempting.
I realize that, among normally adjusted people, there’s a strong desire to believe that one is basically decent and does basically decent things; but that notably is not a right to just assume that this is so and have others nod politely.
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It’s a reasonable concern. “How do I build a thug squad big enough to keep my neighbors away and my peasants in their place without them killing me?” is pretty much the political science question that predates political science; and some sort of global ecological catastrophe that leaves a combination of people who profited directly from causing it and people who amassed wealth doing things that were questionably valuable them and are comically useless now isn’t exactly going to bolster anyone’s legitimizing mythology.
Once the checks stop clearing, or mattering, it’s going to be a trifle awkward trying to sell the help on keeping you around in any capacity other than servitude.
This isn’t to say that we can expect utopian equality to break out; just that convincing a violence professional to squeeze the populace on behalf of some derivatives market trader, rather than on his own account, will be an unenviable problem.
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“Mamluks”? “Janissaries”? Those are funny names! You just made those up!!
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Don’t worry about the guards, after they make sure the 99% are all dead and rotting.
Then the robotic guards will take care of the flesh-n-blood ones.
Too bad we won’t be around to watch that immensely interesting show, although I hope a movie is made with that exact plot (not one “kinda” like it, like the Terminator series, etc) … That one Black Mirror episode with the dog is close to what I’m thinking about.
Then the .01% will just have to worry about the robot repairmen and programmers; although probably by then there’ll be robotic replacements for those as well.
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The Event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, unstoppable virus, or Mr. Robot hack that takes everything down.
Naturally, working to prevent or mitigate The Event never occurs to them, and all they can visualize is some kind of feudal dictatorship with them on top.
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I remember this Rushkoff piece, it was good to re-read. The thing is, “The Event” that they are trying to insulate themselves against is unknown; preparing for an asteroid strike is very different from preparing for a robot revolution or global warming. “Alaska or New Zealand?” They’re both within the Pacific “ring of fire”, and if The Event is a super volcano, then what?
The only way to prepare for The Event is to prepare the entire human race to be able to cooperate and share resources and help each other, humanity as a whole has to be malleable to the situation. Maybe places in the Northern hemisphere will need to accept immigrants fleeing drought, maybe places near the equator will need to accept immigrants fleeing a nuclear winter. As he says at the end: “Being human is not about individual survival or escape. It’s a team sport. Whatever future humans have, it will be together.”
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I suspect that an outbreak of that would qualify as ‘The Event’ in the estimation of most of the people prepping for The Event.
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This is what I’ve been saying for ages. If the bottom of the pyramid breaks down, the shiny top of said pyramid tilts and falls into the chaos that the bottom has become.
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Elites always think their money/power will protect them. They don’t even consider that the possibility of a dark age, which they initiate, can happen (We may be quite a ways off from one). None of the Roman Elite families maintained their hold on power in the ensuing dark age. The political elite that arises throughout the dystopia don’t manage so well either. Their “Praetorian Guards” manage to neutralize them rather well. It’s a multi-generational free-for-all that cancels out all plans.
Meanwhile, the rest of us get to circle the drain too…some solace.
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We have an example of the brain damage of the Big Money Boyz in the questioning of Jamie Dimon by Rep Katie Porter:
When their own money is in question, the obvious seems to escape them.
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Functioning robots require technology that will disappear along with all of the designers, builders and technicians carelessly used and disposed of as collateral damage. Technical aptitude is not overwhelmingly common and the knowhow takes time and effort to nurture and train up to a useful level.
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“. . . you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. . . .”
Isn’t that why, if you find any post-apocalyptic nerds, you make sure to have a violent drifter from out of town kill their hulking but childlike protectors in the Thunderdome?
Authoritative cinematographic sources assure me that execution of friends and protectors followed by enslavement is like stock options but for the dystopia when it comes to retaining human resources with the knowing and the doing of many things.
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All of this was predicted in a remarkably compelling bit of agitprop attached to the DVD of Children Of Men- I HIGHLY recommend this to people who haven’t seen it:
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Do the economics even hold up under that scenario? Are they expecting the ultra rich to stockpile food and medicine for them? And their families?
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maybe the best and most humane dystopian film Ive ever seen. If someone here hasnt seen it yet, go see it!
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