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The last person on earth.


Alexavier

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If you were the last person on earth and you had to survive for one year without any human contact, how long do you think you would survive? Note: pets do not count as companions to keep you company. Basically no animate living things, like dogs, cats, deer, squirrels, birds etc. can be near you, or else that breaks the idea of being completely isolated and alone. It's just you and only you.

 

 

 

How far do you think you can make it? and what would be your strategy to survive?

Reality is a story the mind tells itself. An artificial structure conjured into being by the calcium ion exchange of a million synaptic firings. A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence. And our mind can lie. Never doubt it...

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I think I'd notice pretty quickly that I'm the last person when my girlfriend either died or ceased to exist or whatever. I'd immediately start downloading all of the information I can find on hydroponics, siphoning gas, metalworking, and building bike-powered generators. Then I'd pack my laptop, my discs, and all of my live cultures (kombucha, water kefir, and milk kefir) into the car.

 

I'd hit all the local grocery stores and take all the produce I can eat or preserve. For preserving, I'd be able to make a lot of kvass from the supplies at each grocery store: jars and various combinations of bread, fruit, vegetables, yeast, and whey. But I'd just be loading this stuff in the car to do the actual preserving and such later on.

 

I'd also load up on all the milk I could carry, in coolers filled with ice, so that I'd have something to feed my milk kefir culture -- eventually I'd have to start feeding it powdered milk and condensed milk because there aren't any cows anymore, but I'd put that off as long as possible.

 

Tea bags don't spoil for a good long time, and kombucha ferments slowly, so I think that would last long enough for me to make a hybrid that lives off some local leaf that's easy for me to grow or find. Pine needles or nettles, perhaps. I'd eventually be making clothes and other supplies out of kombucha leather, so this is somewhat important.

 

The water kefir just needs sugar, and sugar never spoils, so I'd probably be good with that for a very long time.

 

I'd hit a local petstore and stock up on mealworms because they're easy to grow, high protein, low fat, and a good source of Vitamin A, calcium, iron, potassium, and sodium -- unless you're prohibiting them because they're animated living things, though I promise they won't be good company.

 

I'd drive up to the Maryland coast and hit fresh fish markets to get a sample of Vibrio fischeri -- a bioluminescent bacteria. After all, the power stations are going to go down eventually, and I should conserve electricity.

 

By that point, it's probably starting to get late in the day, so I'd start looking for a house with solar panels, or just start driving to the last such house I saw. I'd settle in for the night, start bottling kvass, feed my live cultures, including the v.fischeri, and then sleep.

 

Day two, I'd hit hardware stores for supplies for building several large methane digesters. They would convert decaying organic matter into compost and methane. The methane could be used for cooking, and it's an ideal food for v.fischeri. My poop wouldn't be enough to produce very much, so I'd be loading the digesters up with all the decaying organic matter I could find. If everyone else suddenly dropped dead rather than just disappearing, I'd be loading it with human bodies. I'd keep all poop and bodies out of one carefully marked digester, so that I'd have compost that's safe to use without pasteurizing -- all the other compost should probably sit for over a year to kill off any harmful organisms.

 

I'd raid the Maryland grocery stores for more milk and produce, which I'd preserve and eat. When I ran out of that, I'd move on to canned foods, and by the time I exhausted the supply of canned foods, I'd hopefully have grown enough to live off of.

 

By this point I'd be pretty autonomous and self-sufficient, and I think I could live out the rest of my life like that. Or I could, except that this is probably about the time that the loneliness would really hit me. I might kill myself if it wasn't enough for me to talk to Fenchurch (or Fenchurch and 500 other tulpas, if I got that desperate).

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

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I think I'd notice pretty quickly that I'm the last person when my girlfriend either died or ceased to exist or whatever. I'd immediately start downloading all of the information I can find on hydroponics, siphoning gas, metalworking, and building bike-powered generators. Then I'd pack my laptop, my discs, and all of my live cultures (kombucha, water kefir, and milk kefir) into the car.

 

I'd hit all the local grocery stores and take all the produce I can eat or preserve. For preserving, I'd be able to make a lot of kvass from the supplies at each grocery store: jars and various combinations of bread, fruit, vegetables, yeast, and whey. But I'd just be loading this stuff in the car to do the actual preserving and such later on.

 

I'd also load up on all the milk I could carry, in coolers filled with ice, so that I'd have something to feed my milk kefir culture -- eventually I'd have to start feeding it powdered milk and condensed milk because there aren't any cows anymore, but I'd put that off as long as possible.

 

Tea bags don't spoil for a good long time, and kombucha ferments slowly, so I think that would last long enough for me to make a hybrid that lives off some local leaf that's easy for me to grow or find. Pine needles or nettles, perhaps. I'd eventually be making clothes and other supplies out of kombucha leather, so this is somewhat important.

 

The water kefir just needs sugar, and sugar never spoils, so I'd probably be good with that for a very long time.

 

I'd hit a local petstore and stock up on mealworms because they're easy to grow, high protein, low fat, and a good source of Vitamin A, calcium, iron, potassium, and sodium -- unless you're prohibiting them because they're animated living things, though I promise they won't be good company.

 

I'd drive up to the Maryland coast and hit fresh fish markets to get a sample of Vibrio fischeri -- a bioluminescent bacteria. After all, the power stations are going to go down eventually, and I should conserve electricity.

 

By that point, it's probably starting to get late in the day, so I'd start looking for a house with solar panels, or just start driving to the last such house I saw. I'd settle in for the night, start bottling kvass, feed my live cultures, including the v.fischeri, and then sleep.

 

Day two, I'd hit hardware stores for supplies for building several large methane digesters. They would convert decaying organic matter into compost and methane. The methane could be used for cooking, and it's an ideal food for v.fischeri. My poop wouldn't be enough to produce very much, so I'd be loading the digesters up with all the decaying organic matter I could find. If everyone else suddenly dropped dead rather than just disappearing, I'd be loading it with human bodies. I'd keep all poop and bodies out of one carefully marked digester, so that I'd have compost that's safe to use without pasteurizing -- all the other compost should probably sit for over a year to kill off any harmful organisms.

 

I'd raid the Maryland grocery stores for more milk and produce, which I'd preserve and eat. When I ran out of that, I'd move on to canned foods, and by the time I exhausted the supply of canned foods, I'd hopefully have grown enough to live off of.

 

By this point I'd be pretty autonomous and self-sufficient, and I think I could live out the rest of my life like that. Or I could, except that this is probably about the time that the loneliness would really hit me. I might kill myself if it wasn't enough for me to talk to Fenchurch (or Fenchurch and 500 other tulpas, if I got that desperate).

 

I must say, you put lots of thinking and effort into writing all of this, it's quite impressive. :D you'd probably last longer than I ever could.

Reality is a story the mind tells itself. An artificial structure conjured into being by the calcium ion exchange of a million synaptic firings. A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence. And our mind can lie. Never doubt it...

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I really hated school, growing up. I didn't object to learning, I just objected to the school system. As Mark Twain said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Teachers were always telling me that I wouldn't be able to function without a high school diploma, so I started researching wilderness survival, foraging, entomophagy, squatting, dumpster diving, communes, and so on. At one point in high school, a teacher told me I wouldn't be able to function without the diploma, and I illustrated on the board at the front of the class how I could.

 

After high school, I drew up a plan for my ideal house. It's a lot like what I described in my post up above. I still have that plan saved as a PDF somewhere on my computer. And I've had several girlfriends who may have broken up with me in part over that plan.

 

Lately I've been refining that plan with microbial home and tiny house concepts.

 

So yeah, this is something I've spent fifteen or twenty years thinking about. :)

 

Plus my girlfriend got me started watching Walking Dead. My plan would be somewhat different if there are zombies involved.

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

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I really hated school, growing up. I didn't object to learning, I just objected to the school system. As Mark Twain said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." Teachers were always telling me that I wouldn't be able to function without a high school diploma, so I started researching wilderness survival, foraging, entomophagy, squatting, dumpster diving, communes, and so on. At one point in high school, a teacher told me I wouldn't be able to function without the diploma, and I illustrated on the board at the front of the class how I could.

 

After high school, I drew up a plan for my ideal house. It's a lot like what I described in my post up above. I still have that plan saved as a PDF somewhere on my computer. And I've had several girlfriends who may have broken up with me in part over that plan.

 

Lately I've been refining that plan with microbial home and tiny house concepts.

 

So yeah, this is something I've spent fifteen or twenty years thinking about. :)

 

Plus my girlfriend got me started watching Walking Dead. My plan would be somewhat different if there are zombies involved.

 

You, I like you. you are going to go far in life ;)

If text is green, Crystal is talking

If it's normal, its me

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You, I like you. you are going to go far in life ;)

 

 

Agreed! :D

Reality is a story the mind tells itself. An artificial structure conjured into being by the calcium ion exchange of a million synaptic firings. A truth so strange it can only be lied into existence. And our mind can lie. Never doubt it...

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Let me see....

I start off in a similar fashion to Sushi. I download all my needed materials Power (Hydroelectric power and solar power sources), car mechanics, purifying water, animal snares, how to dress and cook live game, all that good survival stuff.

 

This is where my plan differs for our favorite Japanese cuisine: Rather than a grocery store, I go to a place like Cabella's (a popular outdoorsman store in the US) so that I have these needed essentials: a firearm or two with ammunition, fishing gear, several blades, a small gas-powered generator, preserved food, and camouflaged clothing (Forest, Urban, and Snow).

 

THEN I go to the grocery store to pick up seeds as well as any of my favorite foods and drinks (Mountain dew, I'm looking at you) before heading home.

 

My plan of action (Living in Michigan) is to head North of Detroit but still on Lake Heron so that I might have a nearby source of Fresh water. With my chosen documents and tools, I would most likely make my base of survival in a prison, because animals would have a lot of trouble getting in. (Perhaps not mice and small ones).

 

Assuming this starts NOW, I would have some time to prepare during fall, but I'll have a bitter winter ahead of me.

Unlike Sushi, I can't just plant crops, because I'm too far North. My food would heavily rely on hunting and fishing, though I would most likely have to use a hatchet to break the ice.

Lots of woodand/or gasoline would be needed to keep me warm every night, as my power sources are fairly useless at the time (Very cloudy skies nonstop during winter, and water isn't moving enough due to ice.)

 

When Spring comes around, assuming I've survived, I can finally plant those crops and use my renewable power sources. At this point, living would be fairly easy until the year is over. Perhaps I could do it indefinitely, but who knows?

 

EDITS: Some quick grammatical junk

"Try to get a better understanding of things before making your judgement." -Khan, Metro 2033

 

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I've always pondered about what I would do if I had all the money in the world, and this situation sorta relates. Nothing would really change, I would just be really lonely (as if I wasn't already), but in return I would get all the free will I've always wanted. Post-apocalyptic settings really make me feel a certain unique feeling of bitterness and nostalgia.

 

I would drive around and I'd go to fast food places and eat whatever's soon to be spoiled. I'd go "shopping" and whatever. It's only a year, so I doubt I'll go batshit insane by the end of the year. I would go and load up a bunch of shiny guitars and batteries in my car and drive back home. I would put things out on the street and possibly make little rest areas in cozy places like McDonald's. blah blah, don't want to list everything else in terms of survival. I would just chill and listen to music and... maybe I would go insane sooner or later, just like Anderson posted up above me.

 

Disregarding everything I said above, I'll most likely just kill myself. The opportunity would be pretty golden in a time like that since no one is there to hold down on your decision.

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I don't really support ex's "Survival" plan, mainly because it includes dying. Please refer to mine or Sushi's for a better survival plan.

"Try to get a better understanding of things before making your judgement." -Khan, Metro 2033

 

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