A few years ago, when Robin Hanson gave his talk on Catastrophe, Social Collapse and Human Extinction, he opened with some math — namely an explanation of how many disasters follow a power law, and the expected deaths from one big catastrophe may outweigh the expected deaths from many smaller wars, plagues, earthquakes, etc. Even a small chance of human extinction is a big deal.
Thus, building disaster refuges might make sound economic sense.
I wouldn’t characterize the folks at Vivos as sound or sensible:
Bill Chappell at NPR has some fun with the whole thing.
The whole Vivos thing is wrong on many levels:
1. If the world was ending, you would want to ride out the fall in Barstow, CA.
2. The people of Barstow, CA are worth saving, hence the need for a bunker near Barstow, CA.
3. Living in Barstow, CA is qualitatively different from experiencing the end of the world.