Panic Room, Prepper, Survivalism. UK.

THREAT A. Local.

Migrants crowding in. Housing crisis. Insufficient police, doctors, nurses. Prices rising. Busier roads. Shoplifting. Fires. Floods. AI. Violent youngsters. Rioting for fun.

THREAT B. Global.

China or Trump/Musk/Bezos deciding the way to save some humans for a few more millennia is to eliminate 90% of humans now. Otherwise humans are expected to be completely extinct in 250 years.

The USA is the world's biggest polluter and the new executive is unmoved by the causes of LA fires and stronger hurricanes. They seem willing to forego even some of their own people. And they are locking down to become more self-sufficient - with tariffs and ending foreign aid. The USA doesn't want to rely on any other part of the world. Or to have millions of illegal immigrants eating its food. Or to give any more money away.

China has everything except the best computer chips. Better AI. Better batteries. Better innovation. And a track record of ignoring/locking-up parts of its population as well. It already imports very little, except oil (which it is replacing very quickly with solar panels).

Who will be ready to wipe out most of the rest of the world first, so that they can continue to pollute because the rest of the world will become forest and clean up their mess?

Obviously, there is something of a race. Trump, Musk and Bezos all have space craft, AI, and huge resources. So does China (which also has most of the drones, and might have the way in to shut down critical software the world over when it strikes - especially if it is the first to make working quantum computers).

I read that some AI already mastered a warplane simulator and, in only 48 hours, learned to beat a leading fighter pilot 5-0. The AI learned, in only 48 hours, to do things the fighter pilot could not do, because the AI made thousands of decisions each second. Whereas the fighter pilot could only make 3 or 4.

Google has worked with universities to speed up research and development in science. They are reporting years of work by scientists can be undertaken, perhaps even better, by AI in hours.

AI and drones will win against humans and destroy every city targeted and its population. I just don't know when. And, surely, they won't need to find everyone. Pockets of people will survive and continue where the drones aren't looking.

Different sides, possibly the billionaires rather than governments, will already be gearing up with AI and hardware. And safe places to live in comfort till the dust settles.

Whether you think the problems we will face will be occasional, civil unrest, looting and so on; or last a long time with Chinese AI drones filling the sky ...

I personally think that everyone will face some threat or other.

The survivors will be those who had somewhere well stocked and secure to hide prepared in good time.

You want it built well. Dry without a pump. Insulated enough not to require heating. Stocked with food and water. It might be fully ready for years before you actually hide yourselves in it. Perhaps it will be a gym and cinema with storage behind closed doors full of provisions.

Panic Room, Prepper and Survivalism are the idea that it is important to prepare for future events that will seriously and adversely affect your lives.

Instinct is extremely powerful. Hunger gives us the urge to eat. Tiredness the urge to sleep somewhere secure. Ultimately, instinct says fight to the death. Kill rather than be killed.

Communities under stress will send their young men out to raid for the benefit of their group. Warfare is like that. We give our heroes a medal, because they face danger stealing from communities just as desperate to survive themselves.

When the stores have been ransacked and left empty, the homeless and hungry will look at the fine houses not far away for provisions and security. Having 'disposed of' or evicted the owners, they will compete for nice cars and fine clothes.

Whether you need to protect your family from immigrants, protesters, or thieves, you could be worried that a mob will come after what you have, possibly harming your family in the process.

Who will survive this mayhem?

The most wealthy, of course.

I took this Gaffco Safe Room image from an article called What Is a Safe Room here.

I am surprised it shows the door opening outwards. I read somewhere it needs to open inwards to make it harder for an intruder to barricade you in then leave you trapped.

Prepper Survivalism UK

You might include your own petrol generator in case of power cuts. You would not want that petrol generator running all the time you had no mains power just to keep your basement pumping out leaked water, because you need to preserve your petrol supplies.

That is why the Basement Expert is essential to your preparations to survive.

The Basement Expert. Your basement totally dry from the concrete alone.

The remaining question is, do you want 25 square metres as in the example above, or 1,000 square metres to keep a small community going for many years, Terminator-style?

Yes, I already have a serious enquiry for a basement of 1000m². The client wants a big basement, two storeys deep, under his double garage and turning area. Plus replace his big house with a new house and two storeys of basement beneath that. And a connecting corridor two storeys deep with one storey of soil on top of it.

I had several enquiries recently from people who want a basement in their garden covered in thick soil. A new idea. Are these to be genuine nuclear bunkers with increased protection from nuclear fallout?

What might be shown as a swimming pool on a planning application today, might later be your reservoir of drinking water to last 20 people several years.

YOU DON'T HAVE LONG. A NEW BASEMENT COULD NOT BE BUILT ABSOLUTELY WATERPROOF AND TO LAST SEVERAL CENTURIES WITHOUT CEMENT. IF GOVERNMENT OR A LACK OF ENERGY STOP CEMENT PRODUCTION, YOU ARE TOO LATE.

Conception to completion is likely to take 5 years. Most of that with concept design then planning permission.

You might conclude that building a basement with my help looks a very much better idea than having a basement built to the usual poorer standards of the British Construction Industry.

Building safety group baffled and disappointed as it tears into developers still building to old standards.

You get more consumer protection when you buy a washing machine than when you buy your own home - Michael Gove.

At the Bau exhibition in Munich 2023 I found that survivalism is quite advanced.

You might like to follow these links.

BSSD Defence, Berlin, Germany.

Kolomaki, Czechia.

Building a basement for a Safe Room might be what you consider necessary to do what you can to avoid being a family fleeing with only what they can carry.

What does history tell us we should expect?

A few unpleasant lines from a book 'Sapiens. A brief history of mankind', 2011, by Yuval Noah Harari. From pages 58 and 59.

"pre-agricultural forager societies ... Periods of want and hardship were not uncommon, child mortality was high and an accident which would be minor today could easily become a death sentence. ... those unfortunates who incurred the hostility or mockery of their fellow band members probably suffered terribly. Modern foragers occasionally abandon and even kill old or disabled people who cannot keep up with the band. Unwanted children may be slain,"

To survive a complete break down of law and order, you will need to be stronger than the mobs.

The easiest way to be stronger is to be well fed and well rested in your secure accommodation as the mobs outside run out of food and lose a lot of sleep fighting each other, before coming for you.

I read, again, The Shortest History of England by James Hawes (2021) to list when the educated elite had treated the poor extremely badly. The answer is most of the last 1,000 years. All but the 70 years of the welfare state.

When the Romans first arrived, the SE of England had already been replaced by Gaul-ish people. the N by Germanic people, and the W by Iberian people. After the Romans, the Angles from Denmark pushed into England. Invaders subjugate those they don't slaughter.

1066 and the Normans began enclosing land for themselves, and the Domesday book, 20 years later, has the first mention of slaves. Soldiers made the peasants work for the new landowner who had stolen their common land and fields by force. Liberty was never as great again.

In 1547, The boy king Edward VI came to the throne aged 9. His 'Protector' introduced a new work ethic. Anyone not in work for 3 days had to do any work offered and only for food. Otherwise the would-be employer could enslave them for 2 years "and cause the said Slave by beating, chaining, or otherwise in such work and Labour how vile so ever it be". State-disciplined Protestantism.

Then Mary, Roman Catholic, became queen and hundreds of protestants were burned.

The industrial revolution saw the ruthless crushing of English peasantry, forcing them to work 80 hours a week in cities, with very little food available, and in concentrations of misery - so awful that urban-born men were shorter than rural-born men.

New wealthy were making money from trade, and the new wealthy sent their sons to private schools. The educated elite grew in numbers by exploiting the poor.

When Victoria came to the throne, the English visited other lands and forced ancient cultures to change. More exploitation.

I could also list all the rebellions. All of which were put down with hanging, throat cutting and anything else so harsh rebellion stopped instantly.

The point, I think, is that the poor will not rely on the charity of the elite when things get worse than they are now. Because the elite won't be that generous while supplies are no longer replenished.

When the poor and hungry suffer intolerably, and their numbers are huge and the potential reward of taking over a nice house and everything in it so great, and security services can do very little about them ....

new societies without old people, without disabled, and without those who stand out as different will emerge - unless the wealthy fortify themselves first.

You may not have a lot of time.

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