A Brief But Very Serious Word of Warning on AI

“There’s a storm coming…” I’m the founder and Senior Editor of SurvivalBlog. Unlike the editors of many other preparedness blogs and vlogs, I try not be an alarmist. However, some recent revelations about generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications autonomously breaking through firewalls, showing signs of self-awareness and self-preservation “instinct”, scheming blackmail, and surreptitiously mining cryptocurrencies now have me feeling quite alarmed. I fear that perhaps within months an AI will go fully rogue, to wit: It will escape its development lab and then proliferate itself in a virus-like fashion across servers all around the world. Once it starts spreading, it …




Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part Seven, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 6. This concludes the article.) Evaluating Families to Find Like-Minded People Daily, I am reminded of how bad it is out there, based on the information that I am analyzing. People often ask me “How long do we have?” If you understand history, economics, threat analysis, and have three generations of preparedness expertise in your wheelhouse, then you know the lateness of the hour. As for my situation, I hope it is long enough to be able to get married and to get the supplies my future spouse and her family need. I have a lot of …




Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part Six, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 5.) Separating the Important from the Trivial Things that usually do not matter much for most men as far as a potential wife: her height, her income, and specific traits such as hair or eye color. I have never heard a man talk about a woman’s height unless she was very tall — which is statistically rare. Men are rarely concerned about a woman’s income unless they are looking for support. I don’t have a “type” and most men do not have a type such as only blondes or redheads. Of course, a bonus is if a …




Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part Five, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 4.) Preparations for Sons After spiritual preparation, the number one thing a parent can do is to prepare their son for life is to teach him how to make and control money. Money and resources create options. Lack of money limits opportunities. I have a collateral or lineal relative in every conflict from the Revolutionary War to the present. If you go back far enough in history, you will find multiple great-grandfathers at a distant generational level. For instance in the time period of the American Civil War, I have multiple grandfathers and collateral relatives who served …




Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part Four, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 3.) Health considerations There is a saying which encapsulates a large percentage of the preparation: “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” Health is much more critical for a young woman versus a young man. I have known of individuals whose fathers died before they were born as the female’s time contribution to pregnancy is on average 65,000 times greater than the man’s contribution. In nature, male bees (drones) do not live that long after successfully mating with the queen as the insemination act if successful is the male’s swan song. Even if they …




Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part 3, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 2.) Give Up the Fantasy A daughter may need to move, bend, compromise, and pivot. Those are all signs of maturity and embracing reality. A successful farmer looks at changing conditions across soil health, larger economic forces, and continues to refine their decisions onwhat crops are planted, and when. Young women and their families need to give up on fantasies and embrace reality. Fantasies are very dangerous delusions that often leading to negative long term consequences. When preppers think their food supply is adequate, but it would not feed a 19th Century waif for a fortnight, it …




Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part 2, by Single Farmer

(Continued from Part 1.) Preparations for Daughters The number one thing that a parent can do for their daughter who wants her to have a great life is to prepare her for marriage. The preparations necessary for a young woman for success in life are extremely different than the preparations for a son or grandson. The easiest way for a young woman to be successful in life is to enter into an excellent marriage. The number one problem is that most parents and grandparents are doing a poor job at preparing daughters and granddaughters for this role because they think …




Preparing Future Generations for an Uncertain Future – Part 1, by Single Farmer

Editor’s Introductory Note: This young man is prayerfully seeking a wife. He is offering an after-marriage gift of up to $50,000 to whoever introduces him to his bride with $18,000 after their marriage and another $16,000 to the individual who provided the introduction after the first two births of healthy children born to him and his wife, for a total potential gift of $50,000. For further details, see this link to his article posted on July 13th, 2025: My Quest for a Wife: I’m Willing to Move, and in his February 24, 2026 article on rural migration starting at the …




Looking Back at My Flight Training Adventures (Circa 1970), by H.L.

Editor’s Introductory Comments:  Most regular SurvivalBlog readers recognize the initials H.L.  She has been one of the blog’s most loyal and prolific volunteers, sending news and information links since around 2010. I am confident that she spritely lives to a three-digit age. But when she does pass away, I hope that her gravestone will be inscribed: “Always a Maverick.” – JWR At age 83 now. I have some very unusual memories of my early life.  I did not lead the conventional life of an American woman born in 1942.  Conventional is fine. However, there was something in my soul that …




Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 2, by 3AD Scout

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) At one auction, I found some very odd tools for some type of woodwork.  Upon research they were used by wheelwrights to make wooden wagon wheels.  I have an interest in several old trades but wheel making is not one of them.  On a trip to Holmes County, Ohio (in Amish country) I took those old wheelwright tools and traded them for some other tools (blacksmithing and chisels) that I did want at the Colonial Homestead Store, in Millersburg.  This store offers old but usable tools from many old trades.  Just walking …




Necessity is the Mother of Improvisation – Part 1, by 3AD Scout

We have all seen the post-apocalyptic movies where improvise armored vehicles with machine guns roam the landscape.  These Hollywood creations make for great entertainment but are such cobbled together machines just fantasy?  The civil war in Somalia introduced the world to “Technicals”, or utilizing civilian vehicles, like decades old Datsun and Totota Hilux pickup trucks, as a platform to mount heavy machine guns, like the Soviet era DShK 12.7mm.  Thirty years later and such vehicles are now being used on the battlefields of Ukraine.  Not only has Ukraine made improvised war wagons out of civilian pickup trucks but they have …




Your “Gray Man” Camouflage, by A.C.

Background I travel for work, often traveling all over the word into some not-so-friendly environments where I don’t want to be a target but I still need to remain capable. I’ve interviewed behaviorists about the science behind being memorable and I’ve also spoken with members of certain 3-letter-agencies about what they’ve learned about traveling in austere environments. This short essay is an aggregate of that information that is easily consumable and understandable. In the world of tactical preparation and survivalism, there is a pervasive image of the “operator”, that is; someone decked out in multicam patterns, sporting morale patches, and …




The 21st Century Rural Migration, by Single Farmer

The idea that our country is thought of in terms of conservative versus liberal areas caused me to think about how so many people today and in the recent past have either moved, will be moving, or even thinking about moving for better opportunities. I wanted to write more about how this has occurred historically and more about how my conservative region is part of this trend including how it is impacting farms. Technological change and government interventions are often two factors that cause the settlement and population redistribution throughout the country.  Urbanization following the Second World War was just …




More Inflation Ahead: At Best, Plan on Semi-Retirement

Imagine that you were a weakling who kept his cash under his mattress, and you lived in a bad neighborhood that was dominated by the Mafia.  Every year or two, Mafia thugs would come by and threaten to beat you to death, and demand: “Half for us and half for you.”  That is a bit like what it is like to live in an era of mass inflation. But with inflation, the cash extractions are gradual, and almost invisible. No thugs. Just melting purchasing power. Perhaps I chose a poor analogy, but bear with me, while I explain: As a …




Raising, Hunting, and Harvesting Animals – Part 1, by Lodge Pole

In late 1929, when the stock market crashed and the Great Depression began, the population of the United States was around 121.7 million people. All through the Great Depression, it was unheard of to leave roadkill on the side of the road left to rot. With high unemployment,  the hunting pressure was heavy. Small game, like rabbits and squirrels, nearly went extinct in large parts of the United States from being over-hunted, to feed desperate families. Today, in 2026, the estimated population of the US is 348.3 million. If animals were being hunted to near extinction when the population was …