Reverse Engineering the Apocalypse

I highly recommend listening to this nearly 4-hour podcast, Engineering the Apocalypse, dissecting a solution-less societal problem, the looming threat of synthetic bioterrorism.

We are moving closer and closer to a world where terrorists and people angry at society will simply be able to download the most dangerous viruses and synthesize them. It’s the ultimate Pandora’s box and institutional science seems hellbent on opening it.

I call it a solution-less societal problem because all the preventative measures proposed are obvious band-aid solutions or worse, excuses for greater medical fascism and violations of God-given basic human rights. Scientists and technocrats in their boundless hubris don’t seem to get that some things should NOT be invented and unleashed on the world. The COVID crisis that has disrupted all our lives and cost trillions was likely the result of gain-of-function research and science has not learned its lesson — I’ve heard no talk of a moratorium on gain-of-function research.

The ultimate irony is that this is a Sam Harris podcast, Sam tirelessly spreads this demoralizing ideological cocktail…

• Atheism — There are no metaphysical consequences for evil. There are no consequences for your actions that will inescapably accrue to you after this life.
• Materialism — You’re a “biological robot” in a meaningless universe.
• No free will — You aren’t actually in control of your own actions.

Which is guaranteed to produce the kinds of extreme nihilists — seething with anger at the world — that would want to cook up and release upon us a real pandemic.

Here’s the takeaway, the solution to solution-less societal problems (and we face a lot of them), is personal antifragility. Personally, I’m not particularly worried about the inevitable synthetic bioterrorism bugs because I have an amazing immune support armamentarium. When properly empowered and maintained the human immune system can handle the microscopic nastiness of this world.

The other takeaway is that life gets better when you care about people as much as they care about themselves. A significant proportion of the population has gained a lot of weight during the COVID lockdowns, even becoming obese which dramatically increases the chances of dying of COVID. This should tell you how much society really cares for itself and how much you should care for society. When you heave off the slave morality of worrying about the well-being of an amorphous group of millions or billions of people you don’t know, you get to view life as a comedy and not a tragedy. And it will also make you less vulnerable to their idiocy.

Finally, if synthetic bioterror is coming, it’s all the more reason to really live now. To take risks, to embrace adventure, to reject mediocrity and comfort, to enjoy a good steak, to make love with every fiber of being to someone truly deserving, to meditate, and thank God for every breath you inhale.

Listen to Engineering the Apocalypse and let me know what you think…