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: katydee 07 January 2013 10:08:54PM 1 point [-]

The type of people who build fallout and other fortified shelters intuitively assign a rather high prior to at least one of the scenarios in which such a shelter is very useful unfolding in the near time frame, such as a few decades.

Right. I argue that even if you do anticipate this, more utility is likely captured by attempting to decrease the odds of such scenarios occurring than by attempting to protect yourself (and perhaps a few friends/family) from their effects.

As for the "life will not be worth living" argument, having a shelter may make a difference between propagating your genes or perishing, and I suspect that the perceived importance of survival of one's bloodline correlates with other survivalist traits.

That seems plausible, though I'll point out that many common antinatalist arguments seem much stronger in a postapocalyptic setting.

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.