A critical mindset emerges where individuals believe money and technology can shield them from the repercussions of their own actions. This perspective is rooted in techno-solutionism, which posits that humanity’s challenges can be tackled solely through technology. This mindset reduces human relationships to mere market dynamics and reflects deep-seated fears regarding women, nature, and marginalized communities. There is a disturbing reverence for intellectual property, not merely for financial gain but to assert uniqueness and individual contribution. This highlights a troubling obsession with personal sovereignty, revealing a complex interplay of abstraction and avoidance of the messy realities of human existence.
In this episode we sit down with Douglas Rushkoff, a media scholar, journalist, and professor of digital economics who has a new fire in his belly when it comes to the world of billionaire preppers, which comes across in his new book Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires – inspired by his invitation to consult a group of the world’s richest people on how to spend their money now to survive an apocalypse they fear is coming within their lifetimes.