What is the mentality?
The belief that with money and technology it is possible to solve the problems created by money and technology; that nature and humanity are inferior beings, pieces that must be controlled.
Who wields this philosophy?
Technology billionaires like Elon Musk, who aims to colonize Mars, or Peter Thiel, who aspires to reverse the aging process and build a country in the ocean, or Bezos, who wants to migrate to space.
I Zuckerberg takes refuge in the metaverse.
Artificial intelligence developers Sam Altman and Ray Kurzweil have set out to upload their minds into supercomputers.
Are the economic elite preparing to transcend the human condition?
Tech billionaires know their businesses are bringing the world to collapse and want to use technology to run away from the rest of us; but we all end up adopting this mentality, we want to earn money to leave for a better place.
And the billionaires, on a planetary scale.
Their dream is to leave or isolate themselves from this fucked-up world full of poverty and violence, threatened by climate change and large-scale migration. And each of them owns so many industries that it is impossible not to be surrounded by their dark vision of the world.
We admire them.
Yes, because they show that it can be done. Jeff Bezos went into space alone, an egomaniacal waste but a demonstration that the mentality works.
The power of excessive money.
When Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg challenge each other to a fight, they assume the role of gods, as if Silicon Valley were Olympus where Zeus and Apollo fight while we watch from below, they are like characters from a Marvel comic.
An executioner’s fantasy?
They have no qualifications in most of the areas in which they have industries. Bill Gates allocates part of what he earns to his foundation, but he earns it by burdening the world and misinvesting that aid.
Why does he say that?
To combat malaria, he distributed mosquito nets in Africa which were used as fishing nets because those people were starving.
They are all very afraid.
They have access to privileged information. The Koch brothers, the main financiers of climate denialism, are looking for ways to make money from climate migrants, rising seas, and building luxury bunkers.
You were hired by a group of technology billionaires for a consultation.
They saw the end of the world as inevitable and wanted it to help them survive what they call the event: environmental collapse, biological or nuclear war or the unstoppable virus that destroys everything. It’s like paradise is for them to isolate themselves in a digital bunker.
It’s funny that people with so much access to culture are so muddled.
They have only developed a part of their minds. Many of them had just entered university when they came up with an idea and found an investor, they are not educated people, nor supermen. Zuckerberg is obsessed with Caesar Augustus, cuts his hair like him and starts meetings with the battle cry: “Domination!”.
Are there many luxury bunkers?
Yes, and fortresses, private islands. As I tried to explain to the billionaires, this kind of thing doesn’t work: in the face of a catastrophe, pathogens enter, if there has been radiation, the water supply is contaminated, the indoor garden gets fungi, no one can isolate themselves from the world.
What surprised you the most about these billionaires with bunkers?
One said he wanted a hot water pool and I asked him where he was going to buy the replacement parts, then the man suggested, “Lots of replacement parts”.
They are not very ready.
Exactly, it’s not about them being evil and leaving us behind, they’re crazy!, they think they’ll survive without us, it’s a 12 year old mentality. Elon Musk is not a hero, he is pathetic.
Isn’t there a hint of conscience, of keeping what we have?
It’s that their idea is to continue to grow exponentially, advance at any cost, they can’t stop, it’s like an immense technological pyramid scam. A technological future dependent on rare earths is not viable.
80% of young people want to be rich and famous. Where do you see hope?
To learn to laugh, that’s why I wrote this book. If we can start laughing at these people maybe we will choose something else.
