Hugging Face is Skynet

 

OK, wait a minute. This does seem genuine?! 

Folk horror

 

Thomas Sheridan discusses "The Event" in this video. Which prompted me to ask ChatGPT about this doomer-prepper fantasy (?). See the previous blog post.

Sheridan´s version seems to be that some kind of pole shift might destroy human civilization as we know it. Earth will become like Uranus (tilt-wise). The establishment is either trying to leave the planet (Elon Musk´s Mars mission) or survive by literally moving underground.

He also claims that tics which make you allergic to meat are engineered bioweapons... 

AI *knows*

 

It seems ChatGPT has a slight anti-establishment edge...

What is "The Event"? Is that an apocalyptic conspiracy theory? Do some rich people believe in it?

Yes, "The Event" is a term that has circulated in several contexts—some speculative, some philosophical, and some deeply conspiratorial. Let's break down what it refers to and in what circles it's taken seriously, including among some elites.

---

1. "The Event" in Apocalyptic or Conspiracy Theory Circles

In this context, "The Event" typically refers to a future cataclysmic or transformative moment—a sudden collapse of society, a technological singularity, a mass awakening, or even alien disclosure. It’s vague on purpose, which makes it a useful placeholder for various doomsday or “reset” scenarios.

Common Features:

• Economic or societal collapse

• Breakdown of civilization due to climate, AI, nuclear war, or political upheaval

• A mass consciousness shift or spiritual awakening

• Supernatural or extraterrestrial intervention

This term is especially popular in:

• New Age subcultures (where it's often seen as a "mass ascension")

• Conspiracy forums like 4chan/8kun, QAnon spaces

• Techno-doomers and prepper communities

---

2. "The Event" and the Super-Rich

The connection between "The Event" and wealthy elites became widely discussed after an essay by Douglas Rushkoff called "Survival of the Richest" (and later a book of the same name). In a 2018 Medium article titled “The Survival of the Richest”, Rushkoff described being invited to speak to a group of ultra-wealthy men who asked:

“How do I maintain control of my security force after the Event?”

They weren't interested in the future of technology or ethics, but rather in preparing for a world after society collapses—whether due to climate change, nuclear war, pandemics, or AI. They asked about:

• Building underground bunkers

• Employing loyalty systems for guards

• Managing remote food and energy supplies

These weren’t fringe figures—they were tech billionaires and hedge fund managers, people who already shape our digital and economic ecosystems.

So yes, some wealthy people do believe in a version of "The Event", and they are investing in doomsday bunkers, offshore properties, and private security in anticipation of it.

---

3. Is It Just a Conspiracy Theory?

Not necessarily—at least not in all forms.

• Plausible threats: Climate collapse, pandemics, geopolitical instability, and AI risks are real and studied seriously by scientists, military planners, and policymakers.

• The conspiratorial spin happens when you add secret cabals, hidden knowledge, aliens, or prophecies.

• The philosophical concern is that people with power may be preparing for collapse instead of preventing it, effectively treating most of humanity as collateral.

---

4. Other Uses of "The Event"

• Alain Badiou (philosopher) uses the Event as a concept for radical change—something unpredictable that redefines reality (e.g., a revolution, a scientific discovery).

• Spiritual/New Age groups often describe "The Event" as a coming energetic shift, spiritual awakening, or cosmic alignment.

---

Summary

Context	What “The Event” Means	Who Believes in It
Conspiracy / Apocalyptic	Collapse of society, aliens, mass awakening	QAnon, New Age, preppers
Wealthy elites / Tech circles	Civilizational breakdown due to tech/climate	Some billionaires, hedge funders
Philosophy (Badiou)	Radical rupture in reality/knowledge	Philosophers, theorists
Spiritual / New Age	Sudden ascension or vibrational shift	Lightworkers, mystics

---

Would you like a deeper dive into one of these (e.g., the elite prepper mindset, Badiou’s theory of the Event, or how this connects to Buddhist or Zen ideas)?

Yes, the elite prepper mindset.

Great choice—the elite prepper mindset is both fascinating and deeply unsettling, because it reflects how some of the most powerful people in the world are thinking about the future of civilization, often in ways that are more escapist than constructive.

---

🏦 What Is the Elite Prepper Mindset?

At its core, this mindset is driven by a belief (or fear) that:

Societal collapse is not only possible but likely, and that personal wealth and technology can be leveraged to survive and control the aftermath.

Unlike traditional preppers (who might store canned food and learn survival skills), elite preppers are ultra-wealthy individuals—often tech executives, investors, or entrepreneurs—who have the means to:

• Build luxury survival compounds in remote locations (New Zealand, the American Rockies, etc.)

• Employ private security teams for post-collapse enforcement

• Secure off-grid infrastructure: solar energy, water purification, satellite internet

• Stockpile crypto or hard assets in case of monetary collapse

This is not hypothetical. It’s documented in reports, interviews, and firsthand accounts.

---

🔍 Key Characteristics

1. Outsourcing Survival

They tend to see collapse as an engineering or security problem:

• How can I keep my security team loyal when money is worthless?

• Can I implant kill-switches in AI or drones?

• What food systems can I automate?

This creates a strange paradox: the more they fear collapse, the more they try to insulate themselves, not fix root problems.

2. Technological Solipsism

They believe technology can outpace or buffer reality. This includes:

• Uploading consciousness

• Life extension

• Escaping to Mars (Elon Musk-style)

• Creating isolated digital or physical “safe zones”

It’s a mindset that often mirrors the same Silicon Valley ethos that created many of our current systemic problems—disruptive innovation without accountability.

3. Control Anxiety

Rushkoff reports that some of these elites obsessively ask:

“How do I maintain control of my guards after the collapse?”

They fear not just the collapse, but loss of hierarchy, of being in control. This reflects an underlying mistrust of human solidarity—especially among the people they may need most after an “Event.”

---

🤯 Real-World Examples

1. New Zealand as a Safe Haven

• Billionaires like Peter Thiel (PayPal, Palantir) bought land and citizenship in New Zealand.

• The country is seen as remote, stable, self-sufficient, and nuclear-fallout-proof.

2. Luxury Bunkers

• Companies like Rising S Company and Oppidum offer $5–20 million bunkers with:

  • Pools, theaters, medical clinics

  • Decontamination zones

  • Private data centers

• These bunkers are hidden in the US, Czech Republic, or remote parts of Europe.

3. Silicon Valley Retreats

• Tech moguls often buy large tracts of land in Hawaii, Montana, or Texas—away from population centers.

• Some invest in space colonization (e.g., Elon Musk) as a long-term exit strategy.

---

🧠 What Drives This Mindset?

• Control over chaos: A continuation of the capitalist impulse to manage risk and externalize costs.

• Mistrust of the public: Fear that once systems fail, the masses will become violent or resentful.

• Pessimism: Despite public optimism, many elites privately believe the system is unsustainable.

• Moral detachment: Instead of solidarity or reform, the impulse is often to opt out.

---

🧘‍♂️ Ethical and Existential Critique

Rushkoff and others point out the irony:

The people who’ve benefited most from a broken system are planning to abandon it rather than fix it.

This reflects what he calls “The Mindset”:

A belief that with enough money and tech, you can transcend the consequences of your own actions—rather than take responsibility for them.

---

🤔 Why Should We Care?

Because it reveals:

• How privilege reshapes survivalism: not community resilience, but individual escape.

• That collapse is not just feared—some are actively preparing for it while still profiting from extractive systems.

• The real challenge of the future might be less about lack of solutions and more about lack of collective will.

---

If you're interested, I can also explore:

• The psychology of elite preppers

• The history of collapse and elite behavior (e.g., Roman elites, Weimar Germany)

• Alternative responses like regenerative communities, degrowth, or Buddhist-inspired resilience strategies  What is the psychology of elite preppers?

  • The psychology of elite preppers—wealthy individuals preparing for societal collapse—reveals a deeply paradoxical mindset shaped by fear, control, alienation, and technocratic thinking. Unlike traditional survivalists motivated by self-reliance or political ideology, elite preppers often inhabit a uniquely hyper-rational yet emotionally defensive worldview, shaped by their wealth, privilege, and detachment from the average person.

  ---

  🧠 1. Control Obsession

  “How do I maintain authority over my security team when money has no value?”

  This chilling question, reported by media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, captures the central fear: not just collapse, but loss of power. Elite preppers often conflate survival with command. Their preps are about maintaining hierarchy—not living harmoniously in a post-collapse world.

  Psychological traits:

  • Authoritarian leanings: Even if libertarian on paper, many express a latent desire for top-down control in crisis.

  • Mistrust of others: They fear betrayal, insubordination, or resentment from those they’ll depend on.

  • Transactional relationships: Loyalty is expected to be bought, not earned or built.

  ---

  🧊 2. Detachment & Alienation

  Many elites live in bubbles of affluence—rarely exposed to the public sphere except through curated experiences.

  Psychological outcomes:

  • Othering of the masses: The rest of humanity is seen as unpredictable, irrational, or dangerous—especially in crisis.

  • Emotional isolation: Wealth can insulate from genuine human interdependence, making empathy and trust feel risky.

  • Lack of communal imagination: They struggle to envision collective solutions or democratic resilience.

  In essence: “I can’t fix society, but I can escape it.”

  ---

  🔧 3. Technological Salvationism

  "I can solve collapse with enough tools, money, and code."

  Elite preppers often suffer from a deep faith in technofixes—a belief that any problem (climate, mortality, rebellion) can be solved through innovation or strategic planning.

  Traits:

  • Instrumental thinking: People become variables in a problem set, not collaborators.

  • Transhumanist fantasies: Uploading consciousness, extending life, leaving Earth.

  • Avoidance of moral responsibility: Technology is seen as a neutral force, not a tool with ethical implications.

  This mindset externalizes problems (they’re “out there”) and privatizes solutions (they’re mine to build).

  ---

  🧨 4. Apocalypse as Fantasy

  Paradoxically, many elite preppers are not just afraid of collapse—they’re romantically drawn to it.

  Why?

  • Ego preservation: Collapse becomes a kind of ultimate challenge, where they can prove their superiority.

  • Clean slate mentality: A reset means they don’t have to be accountable for current injustices.

  • Moral simplification: In crisis, complex social responsibilities disappear. Survival becomes the only “virtue.”

  As cultural critic Mark O'Connell notes, there’s a weird exhilaration in imagining being the last one standing, especially for those used to winning.

  ---

  ⚠️ 5. Hyperindividualism

  This may be the core trait. Elite preppers often cannot imagine collective resilience, only individual escape.

  They frame their survival in terms of:

  • Self-sufficiency (which is illusory if you need a staff)

  • Private ownership (land, bunkers, airstrips)

  • Outsourcing everything: Food, security, health—all managed by hired help

  They embody the extreme of neoliberal logic: privatize even the apocalypse.

  ---

  🧘‍♂️ Reflection: A Psychological Paradox

  Trait	Apparent Strength	Hidden Weakness
  Rational foresight	Planning for collapse	Fear-driven control
  Resource control	Bunker, staff, tech	Dependency on loyalty and systems
  Tech optimism	Belief in solving anything	Denial of moral/social responsibility
  Individualism	Escape from the crowd	Inability to build collective futures

  ---

  🧩 Final Thought

  Elite prepping is not just survivalism with a bigger budget—it’s a mirror into the psychological architecture of late capitalism:

  • Profit from the system → distrust the system → escape the system
    Rather than healing or transforming what’s broken, the instinct is to opt out—alone, armored, and afraid.

  ---

  Would you like to explore:

  • The history of elites during collapse (Rome, Mayans, Easter Island)?

  • Psychological alternatives to elite prepping (solidarity, degrowth, Buddhist detachment)?

  • Or the media and pop culture representation of this mindset (e.g., Don’t Look Up, Elysium, Station Eleven).

Atman has no limits

 

The mysterious and somewhat colorful spiritual teacher "Dev Bhagavan" (his current alias) discusses the current environmental crisis with an unknown person simply called "Dave". 

The most recent updates to the old classic "Limits to Growth" show that we are right on track and on schedule to the inevitable civilizational collapse. Resources, energy and agricultural produce are getting more scarce. Soon, the population will contract, as well. In the United States, the Trump administration is trying to "solve" the situation by plans to grab Greenland and the like. They already control the island militarily, so the new push is about natural resources. Both Dev and Dave believe that Native territories in New Zealand and the US are filled with oil, gold or uranium, which explains why it´s suddenly so important for the national governments to take them over. It´s also necessary for the US to control high quality oil that can be refined to make diesel, not just any old oil well. 

Trump´s and Musk´s new "Stargate" program in the US is not really about reaching Mars, according to Dev Bhagavan. It´s some kind of conspiracy concerning very earthly matters. Perhaps advanced AI? A culling of the world population? Leaving Earth isn´t an option anyway (not even for the super-rich) since humans can´t take the radiation in space or on Mars. 

Dev Bhagavan doesn´t believe there are any material solutions to our current predicament. We are in the Kali Yuga, and that´s that. The only solution is spiritual. Since castes are mixed and confused in the Kali Yuga, everyone should have access to all Vedic scriptures (not just those who are "qualified" - since almost nobody is anyway). Let people experiment best they can, abolish all religious institutions, every path is valid!

Obviously, I can´t vouch for this particular teacher (cough cough), but I think there is something to the above, as far as it goes. That, and dragonships...     

We are all homeless gods

 

- I´m a rich White guy with an oil rig,
what could possibly go wrong?!

“The Hall of Homeless Gods” is John Michael Greer´s latest novel, published earlier this year. In one sense, it´s a departure from Greer´s usual output. The novel is supposed to be a hardboiled detective story, most of it set in a lawless town literally on the edge of apocalypse (as in rapidly rising sea levels). It also has more typical science fiction/cyberpunk angles – but they are atypical for this author. Equally atypical is the pessimistic streak. Greer´s novels are usually strangely optimistic even as they describe a post-apocalyptic future! I couldn´t help thinking that the story comes across as “Bladerunner without the Bladerunner”, or something to that effect. But in other ways, it´s a rather standard John Michael Greer oeuvre. Many of the characters are outsiders, some are affiliated with strange pagan religions, and the plot is set in a world marked by climate change, peak oil, radioactive fallout and other human-made disasters. I´m pretty sure two of the characters are based on the author himself (Fritz and Huddon). There are other similarities to the author´s own biography, too, none mentioned here.

The social and political commentary is surprisingly up-to-date, suggesting that the manuscript must have been finished just prior to publishing. One theme is AI and the bizarre hype around it. In the story, a team of scientists do succeed in creating an advanced AI…after a fashion. The glorious cyberpunk future turns out to be a great power contest to mine a supercomputer for spare parts, while the computer itself is connected to a quasi-artificial humanoid very good at basic accounting and poker…but little else! Clearly not the future we ordered or feared. Military drones are part of the plot too (they are more effective than the apocalyptic computer). “Year One” and “Planetary Unity” are a parody of the Woke left, with some traits of hippies and Hare Krishna thrown in for good measure. The idea of Wokies turning into a crazed cult doesn´t seem very farfetched, tbh. Then there are the Habitats, enormous floating cities off the North American East Coast. I´m not sure if they are based on some far flung idea by Elon Musk or Peter Thiel, but it wouldn´t surprise me.  There is even an “Event” in the novel. Somewhat surprisingly, it´s entirely natural: a disastrous volcanic eruption (based on a real one that actually happened 7000 years ago) which obliterates Japan and leads to famines and pandemics in the rest of the world (although Greer actually mentions this possibility in his non-fiction book “Atlantis: Ancient Legacy, Hidden Prophecy”).

What surprised me was the pessimism in the novel. To repeat myself somewhat, Greer has an ability to sound optimistic even in novels about a Dark Age future (“Star´s Reach”) or an attack by The Eldritch (“The Weird of Hali” series). “The Hall of Homeless Gods” sings a different tune. The universe at large is just as cold and indifferent as in bleak atheist visions. Even the gods themselves are affected. The Japanese mother of the detective forms a new religion dedicated to spiritually feeding those kami that became homeless when Japan was destroyed by the volcano. The character Huddon is positive towards Gnosticism and says that we are all homeless gods who forgot our true origins in the heavenly realms. The material world is depicted as ruled by brute chance, rather than by meaningful karma or destiny (Greer´s position in his non-fiction spiritual books). But sure, maybe this kind of “school of hard knocks” rhetoric is part and parcel of a hardboiled crime story…

With those reflections, I end this review. And the murderer is…nah, not the gardener this time!

The Event aint drag queen hour, yo

 

A Black gay drag queen claims to have build a compound in Wyoming (a conservative state) to survive "a fucking civil war", which he claims is looming. Not sure if this dude is telling the truth, or merely trolling, but it does fit into the narrative about "The Event"... 

RuPaul is building fortified compound in red state

I väntan på apokalypsen

 

Ändå lite märkligt att MSM lyfter vad som "borde" vara en konspirationsteori. På engelska kallas den "The Event". Fast strängt taget är The Event den apokalyptiska händelse som rikemansknösarna sägs tro snart ska inträffa. Och som de alltså vill skydda sig mot genom att köpa öar och bygga bunkrar.

Lägg också märke till Aftonbladets liknöjda och senildementa "lösning" på att överheten uppenbarligen tappat det: "Öööööh, höj skatten, förbjud lyxyachter".

Sådan är reformismen? 

"Svensken har byggt en bunker för apokalypsen"

Den verkliga AI-apokalypsen

 

Lägg märke till Zuckerbergs och Altmans reservplan i de två sista styckena...

AI bromsar nedläggning av kolkraftverk

 

Subliminal

 

I just realized that there is something terribly wrong with my romantic "mood pictures" of mute and black swans.

No, it´s not that the mute swan is mute (IRL it really isn´t). 

It´s - of course - the black swan. Silly me. "Black swan" is high brow slang for "entirely unexpected event". It could be a good one, I suppose, but in 2024, everyone expects the black swan to be a virtual horror show!

On the other hand, if everyone expects something, it´s no longer a black swan event, is it? And since white swans are some kind of sacred Hindu symbol for Paramatman or something to that effect, maybe we are all subliminally saved...     

Insular gigantism

 

Why are rich people suddenly buying up islands all over the world? Edward Dutton and PJW comments...

I´m sure this isn´t a conspiracy of any kind. I mean, it´s already been exposed, right? :D