Survival of the Richest

**Author:** Douglas Rushkoff

**Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:**

- Why the wealthiest people in tech are preparing for societal collapse rather than trying to prevent it - How the "Mindset" of Silicon Valley prioritizes escape over engagement - The hidden costs of digital capitalism and why technology cannot save us from itself - What circular thinking offers as an alternative to the extractive logic of endless growth - How to recognize and resist the pull of technosolutionism in your own life

**Who This Book Is For:**

Anyone who has wondered why the people building our digital future seem so disconnected from its consequences. Anyone who senses that something is deeply wrong with the promise that technology will solve our problems. And anyone who wants to understand the worldview driving the most powerful people in the world, so they can choose a different path.

In the spring of 2017, Douglas Rushkoff received an unusual invitation. A group of ultra-wealthy technology executives wanted him to fly to a remote resort and deliver a private talk. The topic was one they had apparently been discussing among themselves with increasing urgency: how to prepare for the end of the world. Rushkoff, a media theorist and longtime critic of Silicon Valley, assumed the invitation was a joke or perhaps a setup for a debate. But the fee was real, the travel arrangements were first class, and the questions he received before the event were earnest. The executives wanted to know which regions would be least affected by climate change. They wanted to understand how to secure reliable food and water supplies. They wanted advice on protecting their families when society collapsed. What struck Rushkoff most was not the paranoia. It was the certainty. These men did not ask whether collapse was coming. They asked how to survive it. And they did not ask how to prevent it. They asked how to escape it. This book grew out of that experience. It is an attempt to understand the worldview that leads the wealthiest, most powerful people in the world to plan for their own survival while accepting, and sometimes accelerating, the destruction of everything else. It is an exploration of what Rushkoff calls "the Mindset": a way of thinking that treats technology as a means of escape rather than engagement, that values individual survival over collective flourishing, and that sees other human beings as obstacles rather than partners. The problem is not that billionaires are building bunkers. The problem is what the bunkers reveal. When the people who control our digital infrastructure, our social platforms, our financial systems, and increasingly our political discourse are preparing for the apocalypse, they are making a statement…