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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   31371 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 24, 2023

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More like blast from the past than current burning culture war battle, but one interesting fact dropped from court documents concerning FTX effective altruist saga.

Sam Bankman-Fried wanted to buy the nation of Nauru to wait out the world's end

Dead bird thread

This article is more clickbaity and sensational than factual, actual quote from the court documents docket 1886 - "Adversary case 23-50448. Complaint by FTX Trading Ltd., Alameda Research LLC" is:

https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8NgFWTk2puBG5eSJA/ftx-foundation-wanted-to-buy-the-nation-of-nauru-to-save-eas

One memo exchanged between Gabriel Bankman-Fried and an officer of the FTX Foundation describes a plan to purchase the sovereign nation of Nauru in order to construct a “bunker / shelter” that would be used for “some event where 50%-99.99% of people die [to] ensure that most EAs [effective altruists] survive” and to develop “sensible regulation around human genetic enhancement, and build a lab there.” The memo further noted that “probably there are other things it’s useful to do with a sovereign country, too.”

Hard to imagine worse place to be stuck in the case of TEOTWAWKI that deserted and devastated island that lacks even drinkable water.

It was never a serious plan, nothing more than one of many ideas brainstormed among elite human capital of FTX Foundation, but it is symptomatic as for elite thought and for their beliefs that everything and everyone is for sale. As people on EA forum pointed up, it could achieve nothing than give EA a bad name (if it already hadn't one).

We are not any more in the Holy Roman Empire, selling and buying sovereign principalities is, legally, not a thing anymore and trading land between sovereign states is also thing of the past.

Last case was in 1791, when Christian Friedrich Carl Alexander, last margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach sold his country to Prussia so he could enjoy comfy retirement in England (stereotypical boomer behavior, but probably the smartest move at the time).

The world is ending and society is collapsing; by the way, you and your armed horde of refugees can’t come over here because of this piece of paper I have.

Dorks like this will rightfully be the first ones killed in any real apocalypse. How did anyone take these guys seriously?

Or more fitting:

sorry, the blockchain says this is my bunker. You see, it’s a decentralized, indelible, trustless system for recording ownersh—ACK!

No, you don't understand, my billionaire bunker will be different! All my hired muscle will surely stay loyal after fiat currency collapses

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