Doomsday Prepping

Autonomous systems are increasingly deployed in high-risk domains such as transportation, healthcare, cybersecurity, finance, public administration, defense, and critical infrastructure. These systems can process information, generate recommendations, and execute actions at speeds and scales beyond ordinary human capacity. Their benefits are significant, but their growing authority raises a serious governance problem: when autonomous systems act without meaningful human supervision, consequential decisions may become difficult to explain, challenge, stop, audit, or assign to accountable human decision-makers. This paper argues that high-risk autonomous systems should not be permitted to exercise unsupervised authority. The argument does not reject autonomy itself; rather, it distinguishes autonomous capability from accountable authority. Autonomous systems may assist, recommend, classify, prioritize, detect, and execute bounded actions, but human beings and institutions must retain responsibility for decisions affecting life, safety, civil rights, essential services, financial stability, public trust, or national security. The paper develops this argument through a conceptual framework, governance review, risk analysis, sector case studies, counterargument assessment, and implementation model. It identifies six structural risks of unsupervised autonomous authority: accountability gaps, control gaps, judgment gaps, speed-andscale risk, opacity risk, and security/manipulation risk. In response, the paper proposes the Accountable Autonomy Control Framework, a checks-and-balances model built around risk classification, human authority mapping, operational boundaries, supervisory design, independent verification and validation, explainability and auditability, cybersecurity resilience, emergency override, post-deployment monitoring, incident response, and legal accountability assignment. The paper concludes that autonomous systems can support human institutions, but they must not replace the human responsibility that gives consequential decisions legitimacy. Autonomy may improve performance, but accountability must remain human.

ITA: L’articolo propone una lettura antropologica delle reazioni sociali e culturali al disastro, mostrando come il rischio non venga affrontato in modo univoco ma attraverso strategie differenziate, tra coping, scotomizzazione, prepping, mutualismo e fatalismo. A partire dal blackout iberico del 28 aprile 2025, dalla pandemia di COVID-19 e dalla crisi bradisismica dei Campi Flegrei, il testo evidenzia come le risposte alle crisi siano sempre culturalmente situate, emotivamente stratificate e socialmente modellate.
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ENG: This article offers an anthropological interpretation of social and cultural responses to disaster, arguing that risk is never faced in a uniform way but through diverse strategies such as coping, scotomization, prepping, mutualism, and fatalism. Drawing on the Iberian blackout of April 28, 2025, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the bradyseismic crisis in the Phlegraean Fields, the essay shows how crisis responses are always culturally situated, emotionally layered, and socially shaped.
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FRA: Cet article propose une lecture anthropologique des réactions sociales et culturelles face au désastre, en montrant que le risque n’est jamais affronté de manière uniforme, mais à travers des stratégies diverses telles que le coping, la scotomisation, le prepping, le mutualisme et le fatalisme. À partir du blackout ibérique du 28 avril 2025, de la pandémie de COVID-19 et de la crise bradysismique des Champs Phlégréens, le texte met en évidence que les réponses aux crises sont toujours culturellement situées, émotionnellement stratifiées et socialement construites.

Consumers are exposed to a growing array of risks in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. Prior research has shown that they can navigate and even benefit from certain risks through edgework. However, the proliferation of credit and debt has led many into over-indebtedness—a dysfunctional condition in which control over risk is lost. This study examines the narratives and lived experiences of over-indebted consumers through the lens of chaos narratives. The downward trajectory begins with the initial motivation to access credit, followed by precipitating events and aggravating factors, ultimately leading to chaotic experiences. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, we explore how consumers misperceive risks and fail in their risk management efforts. We identify four dimensions that define consumers’ chaos narratives: emotional battering, unmaking the world, living on immediacy, and loss of consumption and threatened subsistence. As they transition from order to chaos, consumers encounter escalating risks that intensify in unforeseen and harmful ways. We describe this experience as spiraling down with escalating risks—a progressive, disorienting descent marked by compounding vulnerability. This process severely affects consumer identity and well-being, excluding over-indebted individuals from the consumption domain.

Drawing on the influential reflections of Paul Virilio and his Bunker Archaeology, this paper draws a parallel between the spatiality of the bunker and the cultural discourses surrounding the metaverse. Occupying a liminal position between earth and sky, life and death, the bunker is a highly symbolic space within contemporary visual culture. I will focus on a particular type of bunker that emerged during the Cold War in the United States and has regained relevance in times of ongoing crisis, namely that which mimics everyday life, but is underground. By examining various bunkers and underground dwellings in institutional and counter-cultural contexts, this analysis emphasises the inherent 'virtual' nature of bunkers, symbolising potentiality and survival. As we shall see, the affinity between the underground space of the bunker and the cultural concept of the metaverse lies in their shared promise of escapism - a humanly sustainable alternative for survival in the midst of global catastrophes, whether nuclear, war-related, or environmental.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has transformed many aspects of modern society, while heightening concerns about existential threats and unforeseen consequences. Researchers have systematically evaluated AI failures and hypothetical catastrophic predictions throughout this study, emphasizing superintelligence control problems combined with autonomous weapons, economic destruction of society, cyber warfare threats, and artificial intelligence-driven biotechnology dangers that affect the climate. This research investigates ethical, legal, and security concerns concerning AI autonomy through analyses of AI governance frameworks, empirical case studies, and policy reports. The research reveals that unrestricted AI deployment presents the risk of destructive situations, encompassing the combined effects of economic turmoil, personnel job loss, military operation supervision removal, elevated cyber hazards, environmental disturbances, and synthetic biology complications. The resolution of these challenges depends on strengthened lawmaking and ethical governance of AI and international partnerships. The research confirms the immediate need to protect against AI dangers before full AI potential can be attained for human development.

Despite recognizing several ways consumers respond to perceived systemic risk scenarios, prior research emphasizes a general trend toward the privatization of risk, in which individual consumers are responsibilized for managing systemic risk scenarios through their consumption. However, prior work in this area blurs the distinction between responsibilized consumption aimed at self-protection versus preventing or reducing the likelihood of risk scenarios. Moreover, it does not explain how many consumers come to prioritize the former over the latter. To explore how this occurs, this netnography investigates doomsday preppers, consumers preparing for perceived catastrophic and systemic risk scenarios by stockpiling consumer goods, acquiring prosumptive knowledge, and cultivating survival skills. Drawing from the marketplace myths literature, this article introduces the concept of mythologized counter-futures to illustrate how preppers mobilize marketplace myths to socially construct future risk scenarios. Through mythic prefiguration, many preppers’ mythologized counter-futures ameliorate anxiety associated with vulnerability-inducing systemic risk scenarios and pattern anticipatory consumption toward self-protective consumption rather than risk-scenario preventive consumption. The analysis makes novel contributions to the literature on the social construction of risk, consumer responsibilization, consumer vulnerability, consumer timework, and marketplace myths.

"Doomsday" or "the End" is a favourite topic of Astrologers. In this article we analyse the factors leading up to the End of the Current Epoch and speculate on the circumstances leading to it. As part of this speculation we present a novel approach to calculation of Population at the end of an Epoch. Underlying these calculations is a correlation for Population based on Contemporary as well as Geological Timescale. The equation for Population of the World is quite similar on both timescales. The periods of history analysed are based on Hindu Scriptures. Speculation on how the End will come about and the countries likely to be impacted is also included. We are sure the article will be of interest to all readers. The idea is to inform not frighten the public on this favourite topic.

Historikerin Silvia Berger Ziauddin nimmt Kurator Hannes Mangold mit auf eine Erkundungstour unter Grund. Sie erzählt eine Geschichte der Schweiz zwischen falschen Chalets und echten Bunkern.
Silvia Berger Ziauddin ist Professorin für Schweizer und Neueste Allgemeine Geschichte an der Universität Bern.
Hannes Mangold ist Projektleiter der Ausstellung "Chalet. Sehnsucht, Kitsch und Baukultur", die vom 10.3.2023 bis zum 30.6.2023 in der Schweizerischen Nationalbibliothek in Bern zu sehen ist.

This text discusses Mormon conspiracism, or the belief in conspiracies among members of the Mormon religion. However, it will spend most of its time dealing with the extremist neo-fundamentalist phenomena in this faith, which should be kept in mind when reading. Mormons are a 19th century Christian offshoot that originated in the U.S. and uses several other writings besides the Bible, most notably the Book of Mormon, which describes fictional events in ancient America. Existing academic work has focused on the historical connections between the emergence of Mormonism and anti-Masonic hysteria, or has pointed to the highly conspiratorial imagery in the Book of Mormon or the appearances of Mormon apostles and prophets. In this paper, I will attempt to summarize all of these themes, but also add my interpretation of why the Mormon conspiracy scene is becoming more visible in the current era and pathologized in the form of the violent uprising of Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol. I consider the cause to be the weakening of the conspiracy narrative in the Mormon Church following the death of the prophet Ezra Taft Benson in 1994. I will mention a few salient points that the conspiracy neo-fundamentalist movement has manifested in 21st century Mormonism and which led to the creation of the Mormon QAnon.

The present study aims to analyze the stylistic features of the poem "The Onset" written by Robert Frost. The Onset has multilayered meanings which is analyzed through different tools of analysis. The poem is interpreted through diction, imagery and sound devices to elucidate the themes. The analysis will help to comprehend the basic themes that are conflict between good and evil, pessimism and optimism, and life and death.

Rad s motornom pilom i održavanje Dva najvažnija oruđa za sječu drva, od nastanka oruđa pa do danas, su sjekira i pila. S time da sjekira za sječu stabala nije značajnije mijenjala svoj izgled kroz povijest, dok su pile svojim razvojem bitno promijenile svoj izgled i mogućnosti. Bilo je potrebno mnogo vremena, ideja, prihvaćenih i odbačenih izuma i inovacija da bi se napravio uređaj koji će povećati proizvodnost i sigurnost rada na sječi i izradi, te smanjiti količinu ljudskog rada. 12-čep spremnika ulja 13-ispušni lonac 14-zaštita prednje (lijeve) ruke-poluga kočnice lanca 15-prednja ručka 16-dekompresijski ventil 17 ručka za pokretanje 18-čep spremnika goriva 19-kombinirana poluga 20-poluga gasa 21-blokada poluge gasa 22-stražnja ručka 23-zaštita stražnjue (desne) ruke

The research paper will talk about the utopic nature of Frost’s poems.  I will be analysing three of his poems, namely “Two Tramps in Mud Time”, “Design”, and “The Census Taker”. The paper will give a brief insight into the concept of utopia. It will explore the themes of space and time and how Frost adheres to them. Frost was American by birth, but he talks about the life in the England countryside. The world in his poems seems alienated from yet joined to the rest of the world.
                  This paper will be divided into three sections, each section dedicated to one poem. “Two Tramps in Mud Time” is one of the rare biographical poems of Frost. The paper will observe the parallels of his life as a farmer. It shall also explore the theme of want vs need, and the idea of giving up a job because of another’s need. “Design” talks about the striking beauty of a coincidence. The paper will explore the idea of the importance of time, in accordance with this poem. It will also glance into the idea of coincidence vs planning. Lastly, the paper will explore the idea of uninhabited spaces in “The Census Taker”. It will explore the idea of living in solitude as opposed to living amongst other members of the society.

Post-apocalyptic scenarios provide the basis for popular television shows, video games, and books. These scenarios may be popular because people have their own beliefs and visions about the apocalypse and the need to prepare. The prevalence of such beliefs might also hold societal relevance and serve as a type of projective test of personality. However, there are no quantitative accounts of post-apocalyptic or prepping beliefs. As such, we conducted seven studies (N total = 1034) to do so. In Studies 1 and 2, we developed a post-apocalyptic and prepping beliefs scale, explored its correlates, and confirmed its structure and psychometric properties. In Study 3, we attempted to activate a 'prepper' mindset and further explore the correlates of the new scale. In Studies 4 and 5, we investigated covariations in daily feelings, thoughts, and events, and prepping beliefs. In Studies 6a and 6b, we compared scores from 'real' preppers and to a non-prepping group. Overall, we found that post-apocalyptic concerns and prepping beliefs are predictive of low agreeableness and humility, paranoia, cynicism, conspiracy mentality, conservatism, and social dominance orientation. We also found that increased belief in the need to prep is associated with God-belief, negative daily experiences, and global political events.

Kulağa garip gelse de, dünyanın sonunun, başka bir deyişle uygarlığın çöküşünün yakın bir gelecekte gerçekleşeceğine inanan ve hazırlık yapanlar var, üstelik örgütlü gruplar halinde... ABD'de özellikle son yıllarda sayılarında artış görülen bu gruplar İngilizce preparation (hazırlık) sözcüğünden türetilmiş olan preppers adıyla anılıyor. Biraz uydurmacılık yapmak pahasına dilimize "hazırlıkçılar" olarak çe-virebiliriz, zaten İngilizcesi de aslında biraz tuhaf kaçıyor. "Hazırlıkçılar"ın büyük bölümünün temelsiz iddialara inanan, ruh sağlığı bozuk kişiler olduğunu düşünebilirsiniz ancak ABD'nin saygın gazetele-rinden New York Times'ın haberine göre, durum bu kadar basit değil. Kendisi de bir "hazırlıkçı" olan Alan Feuer'in (2013) makalesine göre farklı toplumsal gruplar ve mesleklerden kişiler, kulağa bir hayli de akla yatkın gelen kötü senaryolar dolayısıyla bu işe girişiyorlar. Örneğin Feuer'in "hazırlanmak" düşüncesini benimsemesindeki kilit olay 2008'de "Lehman Brothers" yatırım bankasının iflasıyla başlayan ekonomik kriz. Konuyla ilgili bazı kitapları okudukça zihninde dünyayı "sürdürülebilirliği olmayan sistemlerden oluşan bir sistem" olarak canlandırmaya başlamış. Bazı hammadde ve ürünlerin sağlanamaz hale gelmesinin toplum yaşamını sürdürmek için bağımlı olduğumuz birçok mekanizmayı felç edeceğini söyleyen Feuer, buna örnek olarak ucuz petrolden yok-sun kalmamızın karayolu taşımacılığı ve gıda dağıtımını nasıl durdurabileceğinden söz ediyor. Feuer 2008'den sonra bir nedenle önce paranın değerini yitirmesi olasılığına karşı gümüş ABD Dolarları biriktirmeye başlamış, bunu dondurulmuş aylık yiyecek stokları izlemiş, nihayet yaşadığı New York'ta kendisi gibi "hazırlıkçılardan" oluşan bir grupla tanışmış. Grup üyelerini "hazırlanmaya" iten kaygıları-nın da aslında "gündelik ve yerel" olduğunu belirtiyor: "Terörist saldırıları, doğal afetler ve ekonomik çöküş". Anlaşıldığı kadarıyla bu faaliyetlerin farklı boyutları var: Bazıları için hazırlanmak, yaşadığı yeri terk etmekle ilişkili. Bu kişiler hayatta kalmak için gerekli olacağını düşündükleri eşya ve aletlerle dolu bir çanta ve elbette bir "kaçış planı" hazırlıyorlar. Bazıları oldukları yerde kalmayı tercih ediyor, tabii o zaman da işin içine "sığınak hazırlamak" giriyor. Feuer yazısında alay konusu olmaktan korktuğu için yaptıklarını yakın çevresindekiler dışında kim-seyle paylaşmadığını belirtiyor fakat "hazırlıkçıları" marjinallikle suçlamadan önce her gün "maruz kaldığımız" popüler kültürde "uygarlığın sonu" temasının ne kadar sık işlendiğini bir hatırlayalım, üstelik pek yeni bir tema da değil. Yalnızca sinemayı anmak bile yeterli olacaktır: 1950'lerde savaş olasılığına bağlı olarak "nükleer yok oluş" hakim temaydı, 1970'ler "felaket filmlerinin" altın çağıydı,

Recent scholarship has drawn attention to a ubiquitous 20th-century political space that was long overlooked – the bunker. This body of work draws on a variety of theoretical influences and explores multiple historical contexts, yet most remains wedded to the late Paul Virilio's influential 1970s study of the Nazi Atlantic Wall. Enlightening as his 'Bunker Archeology' is, Virilio's theorization has constrained contemporary debates around the function, materiality and temporality of the bunker. Here, we seek to counter this set of limitations in three ways. First, we contest the idea of the bunker as a simple space of human protection and argue for a more expansive conceptual-ization that is attentive to the bunker as a site of extermination. Second, we challenge the assumed concrete materiality of the bunker and suggest an expanded typology, utilizing a range of materials and milieux. Finally, we take to task readings of the bunker as an obsolete relic by highlighting the continued construction, re-appropriation and reimagination of this architectural form.