Survival of the Richest | Douglas Rushkoff

"I thought I was a joke or a test!" Douglas Rushkoff was led into a room at a desert resort where five mysterious billionaires awaited him. They peppered the media theorist and author with binary questions: Bitcoin or Ethereum? Virtual reality or augmented reality? Alaska or New Zealand? This experience sets the stage for Douglas's newest book, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, which focuses on "The Mindset, a Silicon Valley-style certainty that they and their cohort can break the laws of physics, economics, and morality to escape a disaster of their own making—as long as they have enough money and the right technology."* Today's episode explores the derivative and meta focus of today's financial and technology industry, so much so that the New York Stock Exchange has been purchased by a derivates exchange and Facebook has changed its holding company's name to Meta. Additional Topics Include: Why Alphabet will survive and Meta will fail (05:18)Will new technologies replace human labor or just camouflage it? (12:02)The 2000 merger of AOL and Time Warner (18:14)Is a scorched earth mentality necessary? (20:32)Why do billionaires donate so inefficiently (27:07) (Editor’s note: Topic times don’t account for sponsor ads and may appear a few minutes later in the episode on your podcast player) ------------ Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own! My new book Skip the Line is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold! Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President. I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast. ------------ Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to “The James Altucher Show” wherever you get your podcasts:  Apple Podcasts Stitcher iHeart Radio Spotify Follow me on Social Media: YouTube Twitter Facebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air! ------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com ------------ Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to “The James Altucher Show” wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotify Follow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn