The super rich are preparing for the end of the world

> You just need so many things to actually ride out the apocalypse. >  > Antonio García Martínez >  > former Facebook product manager Robert Vicino standing out front the

entrance of Terra Vivos, the luxury underground shelter community he owns and runs. Photo courtesy John B. Carnett Former Facebook product manager Antonio García Martínez bought wooded land

in the Pacific Northwest that he has stocked with generators, solar panels and ammo, The New Yorker reports. "You just need so many things to actually ride out the apocalypse,"

García Martínez says. "I think people who are particularly attuned to the levers by which society actually works understand that we are skating on really thin cultural ice right

now." In particular, the political climate has made many coastal elites anxious about the future. "I think, to some degree, we all collectively take it on faith that our country

works, that our currency is valuable, the peaceful transfer of power — that all of these things that we hold dear work because we believe they work," says Huffman. "While I do

believe they're quite resilient, and we've been through a lot, certainly we're going to go through a lot more." New Zealand Doomsday prepping crosses political lines.

When Barack Obama was elected to his second term, conservative preppers hunkered down, collecting canned goods and gold coins and buying products hawked by Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, The

New Yorker reports. As today's preppers tend to have more resources, they are investing in tech-based currencies like Bitcoin as well as in precious metals, since they're looking

to secure assets in systems not tied to the stability of government structures. > If there is a civil war or a giant earthquake that cleaves off part > of California, we want to be 

ready. >  > Tim Chang >  > managing director at venture-capital firm Mayfield Fund More than half of Silicon Valley billionaires have outfitted themselves for a crisis, whether

with a bunker, second home or vacation spot, estimates Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn. And prepping isn't a solitary pursuit. Tim Chang, the managing director at

venture-capital firm Mayfield Fund, tells Osnos that survivalism has become a popular hobby, like bowling leagues for the 21st century. "There's a bunch of us in the Valley. We

meet up and have these financial-hacking dinners and talk about back-up plans people are doing," he says. "It runs the gamut from a lot of people stocking up on Bitcoin and

crypto-currency, to figuring out how to get second passports if they need it, to having vacation homes in other countries that could be escape havens." "I kind of have this terror

scenario: 'Oh, my God, if there is a civil war or a giant earthquake that cleaves off part of California, we want to be ready,' " Chang says. After all, the same imagination

that powers Silicon Valley can also terrify it. "When you do [think big], it's pretty common that you take things ad infinitum, and that leads you to utopias and dystopias,"

says Roy Bahat, the head of a San Francisco-based venture-capital firm Bloomberg Beta. And the Valley's preppers have the resources to help soothe their troubled minds. "The tech

preppers do not necessarily think a collapse is likely," says Yishan Wong, an early Facebook employee and the CEO of Reddit from 2012 to 2014, to The New Yorker. "They consider it

a remote event, but one with a very severe downside, so, given how much money they have, spending a fraction of their net worth to hedge against this ... is a logical thing to do." Wong

also underwent "eye surgery for survival purposes," reports Osnos. Read the full story in The New Yorker here: Doomsday prep for the super-rich