It's not my cup of tea but I understand the appeal and the feeling of being in control. I don't understand why this is a big deal or why we should care.
Having water purification, a stock of food in your home for a week or more, medkits, local backups of critical data on a portable drive, weather radio/baofeng, N95s or better, and a decent solar panel kit seem totally reasonable for someone to have on hand. Especially if you have a lot of money and the space for it.
I'm sorry, is being a bit of a prepper something to be ashamed of? Most people should probably be more ashamed of their social media or porn addiction than having MREs ready.
What if Sam Altman runs LineageOS and a VPN? Is he some paranoid whacko for trying to be secured against government digital intrusion?
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.
There's nothing wrong with being prepared. The last few years has shown us you can't even completely depend on stores being accessible and stocked with needed daily supplies in an emergency. Having extra supplies on hand because of the possibility of a flood, war, civil disturbance, power outage, earthquake, environmental disaster, or other emergency is completely wise.
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.
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 think it is because it is generally viewed as futile, in the grand scheme. That preppers tend not to be social butterflies (me included!) does not help either.
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.
I vote! But seriously, prepping is more than just "without rule of law, SHTF".
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.
TBC I'm not talking about voting. I'm talking about strengthening social ties. In a disaster scenario, being engaged in a strong community that looks out for each other is much more likely to be useful than owning guns.
I'd love to see the venn diagram of preppers and something like EMT volunteers.
16 comments
[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 49.8 ms ] threadSo nothing?
It's not my cup of tea but I understand the appeal and the feeling of being in control. I don't understand why this is a big deal or why we should care.
Having water purification, a stock of food in your home for a week or more, medkits, local backups of critical data on a portable drive, weather radio/baofeng, N95s or better, and a decent solar panel kit seem totally reasonable for someone to have on hand. Especially if you have a lot of money and the space for it.
I'm sorry, is being a bit of a prepper something to be ashamed of? Most people should probably be more ashamed of their social media or porn addiction than having MREs ready.
What if Sam Altman runs LineageOS and a VPN? Is he some paranoid whacko for trying to be secured against government digital intrusion?
I mean, this is just stupid.
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.
So the conclusion is he predicts the future pretty well with some uncertainty! Sounds like we should listen to him.
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.
I'd love to see the venn diagram of preppers and something like EMT volunteers.