In an ominous warning endorsed by military and financial experts, America’s disaster preparedness czar is cautioning the nation to get ready now for a possible “collapse” spurred by federal regulations, divisive politics, and an unchecked artificial intelligence industry that could lead to the deaths of millions.
“Unfortunately, the growth in technology combined with irresponsible, really bad government, especially in the U.S., we’re set up for annihilation because the government’s not protecting us from the threats that they should be protecting us from,” said Drew Miller, the country’s top “prepper.”
Miller, a retired intelligence officer and founder of the Fortitude Ranch chain of bug-out facilities, has written a bible on how to survive a civil war, a killer virus, or an attack on the electric grid, all of which he and other experts fear are in the nation’s near future.
Preparing to Survive in the Age of Collapse, from Skyhorse Publishing, which also released the first lady’s memoir, Melania, outlines the threats facing the nation and offers some answers to making it through a crisis.
His opening paragraph described the issue: “We have entered ‘The Age of Collapse,’ an era where mankind will suffer severe disasters that kill hundreds of millions to billions of people because of new technologies and threats, our fragile and interdependent economic system, irresponsible government, and a population that is increasingly dependent and unable to survive without long-distance water and food shipments.”
Miller’s warnings about a natural or enemy-sparked electromagnetic pulse nuclear attack have been known for two decades, but he adds to the list the current political divide in America and the explosion of ungoverned AI, which he calls a death threat.
“If we don’t stop AI now we risk extermination from the new [weapon of mass destruction] that bad people using AI develop,” Miller wrote in the book set for a January 27 release.
The retired Air Force colonel served in Afghanistan under Gen. David Petraeus, who endorsed the book. “An exceptional, albeit alarming, book that highlights the growing threats that we face from advances in new technologies and highlights the urgent need to improve resilience and preparedness for the existential threats posed by those new technologies,” said Petraeus.
Miller said that while the initial chaos of a civil war or attack would likely kill millions, it is the “cascading events” that will kill far more. Those include a lack of food, water, and medicine made worse by urban dwellers who have little knowledge of how to survive without their lattes and sushi.
He also said that Washington is unlikely to help since past administrations have approved executive orders, employed during 9/11, to house politicians and government officials in guarded facilities stocked with food, water, and energy to guarantee the “continuity of government.”
He called the trio of bureaucrats, politicians, and lawyers/lobbyists a “perverted triangle” that will abandon civilians in a crisis. “Government isn’t just failing to warn of collapse threats and lying about the risks we face. Its regulations are the worst barrier to preparing for survival, and a multitude of government programs are setting up citizens for massive death in a collapse,” wrote Miller.
Those include gun control and food confiscation, which he said citizens can fight with disobedience.
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While his is a frightening prediction, Miller told Washington Secrets that those who survive could end up in a better, Mother Earth News-like world where people make do for themselves and the federal model is replaced by county-state governments.
“I hope the government won’t survive a collapse. That’s the big upside in not surviving a collapse. But you know, rural life, county-states, in the age of collapse could actually be very, very nice,” he said.