New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos recalls an anecdote: billionaires stocking up on guns, motorcycles and gold, ready to get out of Dodge as soon as society collapses. Some are even getting laser eye surgery so they don't need glasses.

In his telling, they are quick to imagine the apocalypse and are getting their ducks in a row – preppers with far greater resources. It's precisely because they are aware of the risks – there's an irony there, even in the tools they've created. Yet their plan is not to repair that order but to outlive it.