SaidAchmiz comments on Don't Build Fallout Shelters - Less Wrong

26 Post author: katydee 07 January 2013 02:38PM

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Comment author: SaidAchmiz 07 January 2013 11:22:41PM 6 points [-]

It is also possible that people who subscribe to survivalist views derive less utility (both perceived and actual) from modern amenities, and would therefore have their utility reduced less in a post-apocalyptic setting than your average middle-class city-dweller.

Comment author: MaoShan 08 January 2013 04:11:40AM 9 points [-]

There's also the happiness caused by imagining oneself being well-off compared to the rest of society, whether that means someone buying a lottery ticket to live like a king among commoners, or someone building a fallout shelter to live like a commoner among wretches; it's essentially the same wish, but the disaster scenario is actually statistically much more likely. So wouldn't building a fallout shelter be more rational than buying a lottery ticket?

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 08 January 2013 01:10:46PM 4 points [-]

It would be if it weren't so much more expensive.

Comment author: MaoShan 09 January 2013 02:40:19AM *  4 points [-]

Would the best way be, then, to scale the effort as resources allow? Learning to make your own fire is much cheaper than building a fallout shelter--next in line might be a survival kit (including matches, lighter, and flint, in case you find that you are incompetent at producing fire--like me). I've grown the opinion that all people should have a basic survival skill-set; it would be pitiful to have to rediscover animal trapping and such.