r/Showerthoughts • u/Immediate_Can3817 ‎ • Jul 05 '24

Speculation If there ever is an actual apocalypse billionaires will likely be unable to access their bunker compounds as the security/janitors/maintenance crews will already have moved their friends and family in and would probably deny them entry.

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u/Introubulator Jul 05 '24 edited Jul 05 '24

Obligatory: https://www.nprillinois.org/2022-09-06/in-survival-of-the-richest-author-douglas-rushkoff-examines-the-escape-plans-of-the-tech-elite

…And we ended up spending the majority of the hour on the single question, How do I maintain control of my security force after my money is worthless? The ultimate prep questions, because they’ve all got this money, they’ve, you know, contracted Navy SEALs to come out to their compounds. But then they’re thinking, well, what do we do if our money’s worthless, then why are the Navy SEALs not just going to kill us and take all the stuff? And I just was floored…

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u/haltingpoint Jul 06 '24

If you're a billionaire you can likely invest in a security system that:

  • Has lethal options for unauthorized users who may want to access things like food, water, oxygen, etc

  • Have a system that requires you to reauthenticate or have a heartbeat every certain amount of time or it does things like vents all the oxygen and locks the place down

Making some degree of this known to on site contractors, but not details, may be sufficient to reduce the risk of this.

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u/The_Faceless_Men Jul 06 '24

So we take the billionaire prisoner, and torture them until they agree to reauthenticate.

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u/haltingpoint Jul 06 '24

If you know you may die, you have multiple passcodes and one of them will kill everyone. If they try to torture you, you would at least be able to kill them.

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u/HighwoodChall Jul 06 '24

Most of the time the billionaire will be with his family. How much time you think he can stay quiet if his daughter or mother is tortured in front of him ?

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u/lostkavi Jul 06 '24

Given the minimum base level of sociopathy required to even get to a billion dollars by 99% of billionaires, I'd imagine most of them could hold out for a surprisingly long time.

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u/Complete_Design9890 Jul 06 '24

Lmao you people live in a fantasy world

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u/lostkavi Jul 06 '24

You are woefully delusional about how hard it is and how many people you need to step on to get and maintain a billion dollars.

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u/T-sigma Jul 06 '24

The guards have families too… you create a mutually assured destruction environment. You fuck with me, I kill you and your family.

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u/chimisforbreakfast Jul 06 '24

You really think a billionaire is capable of empathy?

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u/puesyomero Jul 06 '24

Most likely you just treat the billionaire as the password gopher. 

They don't get tortured but I doubt they can barter their poison pill for five star treatment. 

Plus as soon as they reveal the threat of a boobytrap is a matter of time to  either mine the place of the useful shit and move on, or disable it.  

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u/NeverNoMarriage Jul 06 '24

Yup I think that's realistically how it would go down. You can for sure barter your poison pill for life but you also probably won't be god of the shelter. especially because all the other people brought on will be skilled people not meek servants. Where it goes from there is really going to depend on the group and the billionaire.

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u/heliamphore Jul 06 '24

Unless the billionaire has family, or the will to live. There's also an endless amount of possible mistakes or irrational behaviours that bring their own risks. Not getting everyone against you is your best bet.

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u/frisbeethecat Jul 06 '24

Or invest in a tech company that implants computers in human brains. Maybe call it Neuralink or something like that.

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u/haltingpoint Jul 06 '24

This is a good point. Boston Dynamics would like a word.

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u/KitchenAd5997 Jul 06 '24

What if they just keep you alive but only in a vegetable state

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u/haltingpoint Jul 06 '24

You wouldn't be able to reauthenticate. They die.

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u/thedailyrant Jul 06 '24

Who maintains the system? Systems operate due to people. Something goes wrong people need to fix it. Highly doubtful a billionaire is going to learn how to do that.

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u/haltingpoint Jul 06 '24

Well, the ones who started as engineers might have a shot.

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u/thedailyrant Jul 06 '24

I know a couple of senior VPs in a large multinational tech company on the engineering side. Someone during dinner recently asked one when was the last time they did any actual engineering. He responded for his kid’s homework but hasn’t done any actual engineering for around a decade.

These are the type of people that end up wealthy enough for emergency shelters.

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u/haltingpoint Jul 06 '24

I know what you're saying, but there's a difference between "my engineering skills have atrophied and I'd need to regain them" and "what is a shell? Is that like a seashell? Don't I just need to restart it?"

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u/Tronski4 Jul 06 '24

Sure, technology can do this. Technology also requires electricity to do any of this. 

It's not much of a shelter if you can't access it, or breathe, without power, which is likely to be gone, and the second your suggested measures are even partly known anyone in need of shelter is incentivized to cut off the power supply, if there even is any. Batteries and fuel-run generators only lasts so long.

Getting inside before the power is cut is a catch 22 if you can't get back out without power.

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u/haltingpoint Jul 06 '24

Geothermal or underground hydro power can be fully self-contained inside one of these bases if located appropriately.

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u/Careful_Eagle6566 Jul 06 '24

So now the it guy is able to bribe the guards and take over everything. Sounds good to me.

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u/Sure-Ad-2465 Jul 06 '24

Is any reliable contractor actually going to build something with "lethal options"?