But in recent years survivalism has expanded to more affluent quarters, taking root in Silicon Valley and New York City, among technology executives, hedge-fund managers, and others in their economic cohort.

Survivalism, the practice of preparing for a crackup of civilization, tends to evoke a certain picture: the woodsman in the tinfoil hat, the hysteric with the hoard of beans, the religious doomsayer. I figure that, with that, I can hole up in my house for some amount of time.” He is less focussed on a specific threat-a quake on the San Andreas, a pandemic, a dirty bomb-than he is on the aftermath, “the temporary collapse of our government and structures,” as he puts it.

Huffman, who lives in San Francisco, has large blue eyes, thick, sandy hair, and an air of restless curiosity at the University of Virginia, he was a competitive ballroom dancer, who hacked his roommate’s Web site as a prank. “If the world ends-and not even if the world ends, but if we have trouble-getting contacts or glasses is going to be a huge pain in the ass,” he told me recently. He underwent the procedure not for the sake of convenience or appearance but, rather, for a reason he doesn’t usually talk much about: he hopes that it will improve his odds of surviving a disaster, whether natural or man-made. of Reddit, which is valued at six hundred million dollars, was nearsighted until November, 2015, when he arranged to have laser eye surgery.

Steve Huffman, the thirty-three-year-old co-founder and C.E.O.

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