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Vivos Founder Builds an Underground City Where You Can Ride Out the Apocalypse
pigrabbitbear writes "'I was inspired with a very powerful message around 1980 that I needed to build a shelter for 1,000 people deep underground to survive something that was coming that was going to be an extinction event,' he explained in an extensive phone interview. 'That's it, that's all I had. But it was powerful. So powerful that I had a successful business with 100 employees and I took time off to go up into the mountains and search on weekends looking for an underground mine or cave that could be cartoned and converted.' Today, Vicino is the owner and founder of Vivos, a company that sells space in luxury survival complexes around the country. It's what he likes to call 'life assurance'--mini underground cities, in effect, for people ride out the end of civilization in a community setting with good food, television, even a potential dating pool. He says demand has increased 1,000 percent this year compared to last—itself a 1,000 percent increase over the year before."
#MATH
1 to 10, 10 to 100 would qualify!
What a marvelous idea. We'll just hide in this handy cave and watch TV until the zombies have all eaten each other. After that we can come out and someone will be ready with McDonalds and Starbucks waiting for us.
Vault tec comes to life
... *until* the apocalypse?
Kharma is like a boomerang. Mine is broken.
nuclear weapons exist. you might make it to your shelter.
The Mayan calendar is base 20 with the first place only going to 18. This year represents the end of the 13th "great cycle"(13.0.0.0.0). That means that there have been 12 "end of the world events" preceding this year. So the next real end of the calendar doesn't happen until 4000 something when we reach the 20th great cycle. But then it will just start all over with 1.0.0.0.0.0. In short this is NOT the end of the Mayan Calendar.
There is or can be built a machine that can simulate any physical object. -Church-Turing principle
This is so Fallout that it hurts.
I think Mauve has the most RAM. --PHB (Dilbert Comic)
...I wouldn't mind investing in one of these things. Especially if I could take a vacation there, too. But I'm sure as hell not gonna buy before a very popular apocalyptic date.
I've seen this "powerful message" too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesXUFOlWC0
Clearly fools and their money are easily parted. Can't fault the guy for seeing the opportunity though. I guess the question is: Is it immoral to make a buck from irrational fears when you didn't create the fears in the first place?
Meus subcriptio est nocens Latin quoniam bardus populus reputo is sanus callidus
This is Cave Johnson. All that needs is a crazed devotion to science and complete disregard for human life.
General "Buck" Turgidson: Doctor, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned?
Dr. Strangelove: Regrettably, yes. But it is, you know, a sacrifice required for the future of the human race. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious... service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
Ambassador de Sadesky: I must confess, you have an astonishingly good idea there, Doctor.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Naturally, they would breed prodigiously, eh? There would be much time, and little to do. But with the proper breeding techniques and a ratio of say, ten females to each male, I would guess that they could then work their way back to the present gross national product within say, twenty years. I hasten to add that since each man will be required to do prodigious service along these lines, the women will have to be selected for their sexual characteristics which will have to be of a highly stimulating nature.
I am officially gone from
He says demand has increased 1,000 percent this year compared to last—itself a 1,000 percent increase over the year before."
So they went from 1 person, to 10 people, to 100 people?
Well, who's to say what will happen. It's not immoral if there's some possibility of an upcoming disaster coming. Since the probability is above zero, then he's not really ripping anyone off. Also, it means they aren't necessarily irrational fears. Now, the real question is if his vaults will really protect anyone and can they be maintained indefinitely? For example, does he have back up systems in case power is lost, the food source is compromised, walls cave in, the outer doors are breached by insane survivalists turned madmax gangland warriors, etc. Redundancy is a pretty big deal. Also, food that can be regrown and feed enough people regularly so they don't turn to cannibalism. You don't want to be trapped inside with starving survivalists, it would almost be as bad as being in the midst of a zombie swarm. I'm thinking fish farms, hydroponic farms, etc. Of course, the biodome projects have shown us that such closed-systems don't last forever. Meaning at some point you have to come out and deal with the post-apocalyptic world. They should also stick computers in there with offline copies of wikipedia, I imagine that would be wildly useful. You just kind of have to hope they thought of everything.
http://slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&type=submission&id=2409491 On the topic, perhaps
Last I heard Vivos is a single facility that's about 8K sqft and had 1 room leased to a friend. Mr Vicino has done little to correct anyone of this misinformation I suspect. Take the comments as you will, hearsay or not, but ya.. easy to have a cool website and say everything if you never show much of anything for proof.
The business is basically buying up old government shelters for cheap, put some furniture in and then sell it for 100 times more. However much would this guy like to portray himself as a modern-day Noah, he is just a smart businessman preying on people's fears.
Advertising!
Never could understand that. If the Apocalypse is coming, let me and my family be its first victims. A good clean death would be much preferable to a pathetic existence on the brink of starvation in a devastated world.
Moore's Law for morons: Morons increase at the rate of 1000% per year.
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
This is the best:
"Our people have a survivor mentality, but theyâ(TM)re not survivalists,â he said. âoeTheyâ(TM)re not hoarding food and guns and ammo and camo gear in their garage or their basement. Instead, they bought Vivos."
My bet is he caters to overly paranoid people with too much money. So what happens when the dust settles and his clients crawl out of their little luxury caves to find the earth is a wasteland? Then what? Go back inside and commit suicide? Where will they find food? How do they adapt to a post apocalyptic world? Be sure to bring the entire family, I am sure the kids will love it!
If the earth is about to end due to some event the last thing I would want to do is crawl inside a cave and emerge only to find a dead wasteland or a chaotic world in a downward spiral. I would rather Major Kong that event and ride it into oblivion.
Bring Your Own Blonde
There are probably a billion, maybe two, people that we could ask this question even without the downfall of civilization as we know it; but I'm not sure that they could tell us anything useful...
this one's for the in crowd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFUqh7uF1G4
this one's for us roaches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWc4p5z-J0
happy derpday everybody ^^
What happens when the other survivalists come a-knockin.
What can you do? Run into the woods with your friends? Call yourselves The Wolverines? Put twigs in your hair and beat back the survivalists? No... You hightail it to Pastor Richards Salvation Statue and blast off into space!
This space for rent
(In Homer voice) So it's fears you're selling, ay?I'd like a dozen fears please. That costs HOW MUCH??? I'd like one fear please. What? Can I get just a taste? Mmmmmmm.... fear.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
To Vaultec's Vault 13. Please see the overseer on the way in.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
the death of most people in an all out nuclear war or non-ELE asteroid hit will be neither clean nor quick. The majority that immediately die will be via burning to death (not ionizing radiation) in less than instant time, it will be painful. then burns on survivors further out will become infected. then hunger and thirst and disease will claim more. enjoy!
Many many many million people live on the brink of starvation in a devastated world (it's no use to them that *we* have it nice, is it, so to them the world is all fucked up already) as we speak and have for ages.
Also, consider this -- not the situation as a whole, but between these two. And I totally don't mean this tongue in cheek.. it's easy to say "fuck it", but as long as someone you care about still wants to live, what will you do? There is no good clean death either, other than falling asleep and not waking up at ripe old age, which is not an option here. So... could you kill a loved one? Or leave them to do it themselves? What you say now would have to condense in some (in)action then, and I kinda doubt that, I hope you take it as a compliment :P
I rather guess you and I and most everybody would try to survive for as long as we can. People adapt quickly, too. We survived the stone age, the dark ages, a lot of shit compared to which the apocalypse would still be kinda tame. It would be horrible to us, and compared to what we are used to, to our cozy little lives, but absolutely not on a total scale and to what is going on on this planet in general. Many people are enduring worse right now. We might not be among them, maybe we won't cut it, but we'd die trying, I would more or less bet on that.
I look forward to eating your rations.
One question...once the place is filled with apocalypse nuts, can we seal the door and just leave them in there for good?
You couldn't have posted this a bit sooner than the day before December 21, 2012?
Have gnu, will travel.
Vaporization in a nuclear blast? Not a bad way out. Instantaneous and blink it's over.
Death by starvation or some fucking infection or some bullshit in a desolate world forced to fight mortally for cans of beans? No thanks, prefer the former. So, please, vaporization thanks. Even a bio/freak-virus attack which kills in a day or two time would suffice.
But the greater problem is the growing number of people who feel they must abandon the world rather than try to save it.
Rather than get involved and try to make things better, it is so much easier to let the stuff you don't like about the world just run amok and burn itself out, so long as the innocents it takes out with it aren't you and yours.
But then again.......if what you dislike about the world is the rise of science, secular morality, freedom and responsibility....and your way of fixing it is to foist your crazy superstitions upon others while giving up all your freedom to the government so it can keep you safe.....well then I suppose I would prefer you tucked yourself away into your underground bunker sooner rather than later.
Yes, but will he look after my pet?
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Awww come on, don't be like that.
...when it turned out the event the Myans were warning about was an excessive outgassing of radon by rocks in underground mines.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Pack up your Galts in your old kit-bag, And smile, smile, smile, While you've a Lucifer to light your fag, Smile, boys, that's the style. What's the use of worrying? It never was worth while, so Pack up your Galts in your old kit-bag, And smile, smile, smile.
The Nebraska facility is almost certainly a former Bell System facility. It has a classic AT&T microwave tower and high bays for switching equipment. AT&T used to have underground centers across the country for survivable communications. Here's one that is for sale.
There are a surprising number of bunkers for sale in the US. I see some on the market that were being offered a decade ago. The costs of refurbishing and operating a big military facility in the middle of nowhere are high, and few people bother. Some have done so, and then realized they don't really want to live there.
The rich were using all the money they stole from everyone else to build underground bunker fortresses to ride out whatever they have planned for the rest of us... now there's proof.
This is really, really pathetic, all this failed terror-management. These people are so afraid of death that they lose sight of what is important and miss out on life. Cowering in some hole in the underground delaying the inevitable for a while is not my idea of how to go. In fact is is pretty much a horror-vision.
Really, my preparation for doomsday are a nice bottle of something alcoholic to take the edge off, but that is it. Nothing more required. Death comes for us all, nothing to be afraid of, except maybe dying badly because you are unable to face death.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
This is really, really pathetic, all this failed terror-management. These people are so afraid of death that they lose sight of what is important and miss out on life. Cowering in some hole in the underground delaying the inevitable for a while is not my idea of how to go. In fact is is pretty much a horror-vision.
Really, my preparation for doomsday are a nice bottle of something alcoholic to take the edge off, but that is it. Nothing more required. Death comes for us all, nothing to be afraid of, except maybe dying badly because you are unable to face death.
Word, my plan is to just die. If i don't die right away i'm sure someone or something will kill me.
I don't want to live if i can' t access slashdot.
Be seeing you...
Never could understand that. If the Apocalypse is coming, let me and my family be its first victims. A good clean death would be much preferable to a pathetic existence on the brink of starvation in a devastated world.
For me, it's because I value humanity beyond myself and those I immediately know. Humanity must live on. We're the only source of sentience we know of in the universe, and that is precious. This is why it's important that we reach out to the stars. I'll never see the dawn on another world, and neither will my children, but it is still vital that we struggle and strive towards it.
Wiping out all of humanity without cosmic intervention (gamma ray burst, etc.) is pretty hard. But wiping out our civilization is not. I would want to survive (even in misery) if it meant that one day humanity could rebuild. If I ever get rich, I want to build vaults of knowledge that can survive an apocalypse for those who come after.
This is really, really pathetic, all this failed terror-management. These people are so afraid of death that they lose sight of what is important and miss out on life. Cowering in some hole in the underground delaying the inevitable for a while is not my idea of how to go. In fact is is pretty much a horror-vision.
Giving up on life when it's still possible is the true cowardice, not waiting things out while there's still a chance. Our ancestors lived in much worse conditions. Labeling the struggle to survive as futile and death without achieving anything as "inevitable" smacks of laziness and entitlement. As long as humanity still exists, we much struggle and hope our distant descendants will learn from our mistakes.
Death comes for us all, nothing to be afraid of, except maybe dying badly because you are unable to face death.
Early death is a luxury you can afford when you're easily replaceable. When life becomes precious by rarity, indulging in it because you're too fearful of having to struggle to survive is just selfish and pathetic. Death will come for you eventually, but there's no need to rush it when future generations are counting on you.
Let me get this straight. This guy is going to have 1000 rather devoted survivalists ( == probably paranoid) cooped up in an underground cave somewhere? I give it 100 days, tops, before people start shooting each other or using whatever other tools are available. Granted, having a small but reasonably-functioning little village could be nice and robust, but with those kinds of numbers it's inevitable that you're going to have some pretty bitter and high-pressure politics going on, and it's only a matter of time before a lot of people snap, particularly if it really is the "end of the world".
Unless I personally knew each and every person and knew something about their endurance, sanity, and skills in a high-pressure, low-resource situation, I'll take my chances on the surface, thanks.
very disappointed, hardly any zombies roamed the street and only a small fireball was looming over the horizon. aw heck, those were early commuters and the sun. what a ripoff
Ember?
Some friends and I are looking to buy a 100+ acres in the boondocks. Between 10 people, it's very affordable. Especially because some state governments give away land, if you agree to improve it (and pay taxes on the land and improvements). Free or cheap 100+ acres, a hundred grand for a hunting lodge, and you have a very nice vacation retreat. Folks in the pool can hunt on the land for free, folks that don't can have a comfy cabin in the woods, paranoid survivalists can build a bunker and stock it with ... whatever. Could cover capital improvements by renting out the property to hunters or folks wanting to vacation in the middle of nowhere but with modern convenience. Some of us really want a stocked pond, which would be nice.
I'm quite sure some folks here will chide me for being a paranoid survivalist (I'm not), others will chide me for not being enough of a paranoid survivalist (fair enough). Reality, I'd just like a nice vacation spot for a reasonable cost that also serves as an offsite backup in case of whatever. If things did get interesting, I'd be happier being with 10+ good friends, being able to sleep at nice and having a nice ice cold beer in hand. Come what may.
Preferably female?
Spooky captcha: godhead
So I can ride out an "apocalypse" which was pulled out of some numerologists ass, or I can pay a lot of money to seal myself underground with a group of end-of-the-world whackjobs? Hmm, it's a tough call.
The will to survive is strong in people. There are a lot of "apocalyptic" scenarios that don't give you such a clean death. For example what if the crisis is in the form of a new plague that rips through the population like the black death. Under such a scenario people in an isolated facility like that may well actually survive into a world that isn't that much different, other than far fewer people and a harder life, than what they left. The really bad scenarios; such as a full out nuclear war, killer asteroid, or massive solar flare, will probably kill them as well. Whatever form it takes, no matter how hopeless the situation, there will be a lot of people who will try to survive. If that is your bent then being the most prepared guy can't hurt.
Every year you can purchase paper based calenders that end either 18 or 12 months from the time of purchase. Nobody thinks its the end of the world, they think its the end of the calendar.
My guess is that Fred the Mayan calendar maker wanted to get into the Mayan equivalent of the Guiness Book of World Records. He went down to George's rock emporium and asked for the biggest rock available. It being the end of the year and everyone was renovating their temple the biggest rock George had wasn't quite big enough to do the whole perpetual calendar but it was big enough to get into Guiness so Fred took it.