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Billionaires aren’t like us. They get special tax breaks to protect their fortunes, operate private intelligence rings, and increasingly have direct lines to the White House, if they’re not there already.
Given their increasing hold on the levers of political power, in other words, it’s likely that the world’s richest would get advance news of a civilization-threatening event. Kyle McDonald, a programmer and artist from Los Angeles, has developed a new jet tracker with exactly that dynamic in mind. Called the Apocalypse Early Warning System, the vibecoded website is meant to warn of impending doom based on how many private jets are in the air at any one time.
The mechanics are complicated, but the concept itself is rather simple: is the number of private jets in the air unusual for a given time? If so, it could indicate that the ultra rich have advanced knowledge of a world-ending emergency, and are scrambling for their private compounds while they still can.
Basically, the AEWS is designed to map private aircraft signals from around the world, which it then compares against typical numbers. Based on the difference, it assigns a score between 1 and 5, with 1 being completely normal, and 5 signalling that the level of private jet activity is higher than it’s been over the previous year.
McDonald caveats that the score is not a guarantee of apocalypse, but “should be read alongside other public signals.” A level 5 can be triggered by holidays or major political events, for example, so it’s important to view the data in context.
Still, McDonald told Business Insider, the tool has already mapped some surprising trends. For example, the AEWS’ highest spike so far came on April 6, the day when Iran launched a massive offensive barrage on US and Israeli targets in retaliation for earlier attacks.
“That freaked me out,” McDonald wrote. “I remember thinking, ‘oh my God, it’s real.’”
The programmer-activist has also worked on a few other public-information tools that have helped reveal useful facts hidden under piles of noisy data. One app he worked on with friends, meant to track the Los Angeles Police Department’s infamously aggressive helicopters, helped uncover the fact that the agency was frequently disabling or manipulating their transponder signals to avoid detection by the public.
How useful the information will actually be if disaster strikes is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, it’ll be fascinating to see whether the programmer identifies more trends in the flight data as regional wars and climate disasters continue roiling the globe.
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