What would you do if you were the last person on the planet?

[KerbMav]

What might be a more interesting thought experiment is "what would you do if you were alone on Earth for a month".

And would the others know afterwards?!

[Superfluous J]

What might be a more interesting thought experiment is "what would you do if you were alone on Earth for a month".

I would go to as many houses as I could and turn all the furniture around.

[maltesh]

They already are.

That may be, but right now, they're a mess with with drivers who have at least some interest of getting to where they want to be, and not damaging their vehicles. There are large numbers of organizations involved in cleaning, repairing, and otherwise maintaining the roads and the flow of traffic on them.

Vanish everyone, and you have a bunch of moving cars which are going to stop moving when they hit something. That will damage most of them, depending on how fast they were moving. Some of them may ever catch fire, and there's no fire department to come put them out. There are no tow services to move them off the road. There's no street cleaning services to get debris and trash that flows onto the road off the road. It's just you.

[RAINCRAFTER]

I'd raid every scrap of useful stuff ever and move it to Europe. I'd go there and then make a new humanoid species with all the power of every computer ever, and then nothing would really matter.

:rolleyes:

[justidutch]

I would ponder the question of the tree falling in the forest but no one around to hear it. Then I would find the nearest liquor store.

[Guest]

Just thought of one more thing to do:

Watch the ISS reenter the atmosphere, as nobody will be there to reboost it.

[Fatal_Gam3er]

First thing ill do is launch myself, (With a sustainable food & Oxygen supply) from Cape Canaveral to the ISS (Via any rockets left on the pad at the time) and live there till it De-orbits.

[Gojira1000]

Find a canned-goods warehouse near an operating power station, probably a largish dam. Furnish it nicely. Get a shotgun for the wild dogs. Borrow some heavy equipment and dig/construct a vault, stick a selection of time-capsule-y things in it and seal it up (for Teh Alienz) Drink only the best wine and read books (especially "how to maintain a large hydroelectric site"). Catch up on sleep. Watch the pollution levels drop. Listen to Strauss.

(Or you can read "The Purple Cloud" which is a very odd novel about exactly this extinction idea)

[SemiaCloud]

I would figure out how to sustain myself, and then raid any space exploration facilities, and maybe check out area 51.

[Andem]

Do everything I could to survive, but when all the GOOD entertainment is gone, I would probably go to a hospital and collect a fatal dose of morphine. Y'all know what's next.

[cubinator]

Step 1: Look for other people.

Step 2: After determining that I am, in fact, the only human on the planet, feel a huge wave of sorrow at being the end of all humanity, then wonder about what evolution will do with us all gone.

Step 2.5: Wander.

Step 3: Construct a monument of human culture and science that will hopefully last until some other intelligent species develops/arrives so that they can learn about us.

Step 4: Wander some more, maybe adding to the monument or putting down pointers toward it's location.

Throughout: Wander around, looking at cool stuff, reading books, making things, finding food (probably involving learning to make weapons and hunt)

By the time the monument is finished, I will probably have done everything interesting. I'll try to make a superconducting EmDrive to see if it works, and if it does I'll make a spaceship and go to the Moon.

[JedTech]

Go to a computer store and make it my home. Get all the best parts, gear, and monitors and play KSP in style, all day, everyday.

[BloodDusk]

"Well...At least we finally got rid of third wave feminism for good!"

[michaelsteele3]

On 11/1/2015 at 1:27 PM, ZedNova said:

I'd go to where the supercomputer Titan is located, install KSP on it and enjoy 20k part ships at 4k 144fps.

(Yes, i know what bottlenecks and chip architecture is, and that KSP wouldn't work on it...lemme have some fun pls)

Power	8.2 MW
Operating system	Cray Linux Environment
Space	404 m2 (4352 ft2)
Memory	693.5 TiB (584 TiB CPU and 109.5 TiB GPU)
Storage	40 PB, 1.4 TB/s IO Lustre filesystem
Speed	17.59 petaFLOPS (LINPACK) 27 petaFLOPS theoretical peak

 

Oh dear the things I would do with 693 Terrabytes (693500 Gigabytes) of RAM.

And what would I do with 40 Petabytes (693,500,000 Gigabytes) of memory?

I'd DOWNLOAD. THE. INTERNET.

 

But I would probably still lose faith in humanity by any internet blog post.

Edited February 3, 2016 by michaelsteele3
A word.

[HebaruSan]

On 11/1/2015 at 0:14 PM, Aperture Science said:

What would you do if you woke up and every person on Earth (including the ISS), except you, magically disappeared?

Is my dog still here? I'm going to assume yes, so we'll be going on the walk of a lifetime.

Hmm, supplies checklist. Transport, generator, refrigeration unit, fuel. Overshare: I'm going to be on the road raiding pharmacies for all of their blood glucose test strips and insulin and trying to stop it from spoiling (which is not hard to do, at least over the short term). Maybe a basement would be easier than active refrigeration. I'll need some way to find pharmacies efficiently, so check libraries for yellow pages for all the nearby towns. I'm assuming standalone GPS units would still work as long as I can provide power, so I'll bring ours and find batteries. I'd have to switch back from the pump to syringes, since pump supplies are shipped rather than sold retail. There are places where traffic is much less (as in, zero cars pass in a 30 minute period), so we might seek those out if it turns out to be as big a problem as suggested above.

Food can more or less take care of itself given how much stuff is sitting in cans in all the supermarkets. I'm thinking 3-6 cans per day would give me nearly a year per store, as long as I didn't get bored of peaches and tomato soup. I might have to move about a mile away after 2 years at that rate, and so on. Then again, climate may necessitate more rapid migration than that.

Libraries for books now that the internet is down forever. Hopefully there are copies of the whole Fleet of Worlds series nearby for after I finish Ringworld's Children; I can't assume the interlibrary loan databases will be up. I guess a laptop could still be useful if I can find that generator.

I doubt I'd be able to resist the temptation to explore people's houses and investigate what was going on in there all along. In general I'd feel like I was living the dream, since I'd have more access to material wealth than anyone in history without having to work hardly at all for it.

But once the shock wore off, I'd have to ask, why, and why me? I'm not special. An event like this should either have wiped me out as well or left other survivors. If it really does seem like I'm the one and only person left in the entire world, I'd have to suspect something more strange was going on, like I'm in a coma and dreaming, or I've been kidnapped and embedded in a virtual reality, or it's a test by some very powerful alien entity (but that still doesn't answer, why pick me instead of someone else?), etc. Almost any outlandish scenario starts to sound plausible by comparison. I'd probably settle on a pet theory after a while and adjust my behavior if I thought I was being monitored.

[cantab]

Call mum (who lives with me) and ask where she's gone. When I get no answer, be very worried and probably a bit panicky.

Once it became apparent that *everyone* in my local area had vanished, try and figure out where they've gone, what the heck is going on, and in time try and find a way to get them back. Like someone else alluded to, I think the first indication that something very weird had happened would be the cars - abandoned, crashed (but probably not severely damaged because it's slow driving on my street), their engines perhaps still running, the doors closed, the seatbelts fastened, and perhaps even a pile of clothes in the drivers seat. Then I might check the web, and the lack of any news reports might indicate it's a more widespread issue than just my neighbourhood.

In terms of practical considerations, I think I'd manage in the short to medium term. The loss of public utilities would be the biggest issue, but otherwise there don't seem to be many threats except maybe fire. In civilisation collapse scenarios the biggest danger is other people and that doesn't apply here, and Britain has a mild climate and no real dangerous wildlife.

Longer term, I don't know what I'd do. Probably wander around, never quite stopping looking for a way to put things right. Quite possibly kill myself, it may seem like the only way of learning more.

And miss my mum

Edited February 3, 2016 by cantab

[katateochi]

Well, my first response to waking up to this would be to restart my router, before realising that it's not just the digital world that's gone quiet.  

14 minutes ago, cantab said:

Call mum (who lives with me) and ask where she's gone. When I get no answer, be very worried and probably a bit panicky.

I feel sad now.

1 hour ago, HebaruSan said:

Is my dog still here? I'm going to assume yes, so we'll be going on the walk of a lifetime.

I'm also assuming it's just the people that have been magic'd away.

So dog and I would set about befriending other dogs, forming a large pack and wondering about becoming steadily more and more feral. I'd also construct small monuments all over the place that have absolutely no meaning, so when I die I can do so happy in the knowledge that when in the future an alien race sends it's archaeologists here, I'll have wasted years of their time.

[Matuchkin]

I'll realize everyone I met and loved is gone. I'll weep for a few hours, then probably commit suicide.

It's called REALISM, folks!

[HebaruSan]

4 minutes ago, katateochi said:

So dog and I would set about befriending other dogs, forming a large pack and wondering about becoming steadily more and more feral.

Further on the subject of dogs: no leashes or fences needed ever again without traffic, and I'd have to go around freeing whichever of the neighbors' dogs weren't using the facilities when "it" happened (probably in an ever widening circle, sigh). They might do OK at a pet supply store.

4 minutes ago, katateochi said:

I'd also construct small monuments all over the place that have absolutely no meaning, so when I die I can do so happy in the knowledge that when in the future an alien race sends it's archaeologists here, I'll have wasted years of their time.

It would be really, really hard to get their attention. Extremely optimistically, suppose you lived another 100 years solo. I don't think a single person could build anything nearly as impressive as, say, the Sears Tower working full time for 100 years. Yet we have many cities full of acres and acres worth of such structures. They'd be so busy trying to piece together history and trade relations and so forth that you'd be lucky if they even sifted your monuments out of the background noise of the landscape.

[cantab]

Actually, feral dogs might be one of the bigger threats. Especially in a pack if they attack you they can kill you. Maybe I will need to think about arming myself. And I certainly won't be setting other people's dogs free.

[ChrisSpace]

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2015 at 5:27 AM, ZedNova said:

I'd go to where the supercomputer Titan is located, install KSP on it and enjoy 20k part ships at 4k 144fps.

I like this plan, with any game really. Playing Civ V on a 2048x4096 tile world, installing every mod needed to perfectify KSP/Minecraft, Building an entire fully detailed solar system in US2 with no lag, that sort of thing.

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2015 at 5:51 AM, Thomas988 said:

As much fun as I would love to have, getting a sustainable and reliable food and water source would be my first priority. Like what 5thHorseman said, I'd get a farm and learn how to do farm stuff. I'm sure I'd find a good place to get drinkable water (famous last words, am I right?), like a well.

I assume this is one of those 'spherical immortal human in a vacuum' type scenarios, as Randal Munroe calls it.

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2015 at 5:51 AM, Thomas988 said:

Then I would just travel. I'd drive all over the US and perhaps fly to other countries. I would make to sure to break into locations that would otherwise be inaccessible to a normal person, including Area 51, the White House, NASA's space centers, NSA headquarters, yadda yadda yadda.

This would be one of my favorite parts, exploring the world and uncovering all the lies and secrets kept by 'those guys'.

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2015 at 8:00 AM, pTrevTrevs said:

I would find the equipment used for cloning animals and stuff and try to clone myself, or maybe use it to create an artificial human (not a clone of me) so I can repopulate the earth. Also I would declare myself ruler of the world and take up residence in the White House. I would begin a collection of vintage aircraft and drive around in a tank, since I could get gas for free, the crappy mileage wouldn't matter. Once I had a significant population going from cloning, I would try and get things running again that I would need to restore the world to its former glory, like oil rigs, roads, radio towers, etc.

I seem to be the only smart person here, everyone else just wants to play KSP on a supercomputer or equally stupid stuff.

So you'd use cloning to rebuild the world? Well with things like sperm banks and genome preservation, I don't think it's impossible. And in the meantime, you have an entire planet's worth of resources all to yourself!

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2015 at 11:31 AM, StrandedonEarth said:

Go look for explosives so I could amuse myself by blowing stuff up. Even better if I could find a nuke. And if I happened to blow myself up in the process, oh well. If I'm definitely the last person alive, then no great loss.

Explosions would also attract other survivors in the area.

I think everyone has wanted to nuke something at some point. Ideally I'd want to nuke the moon, so my crater would be permanently visible.

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2015 at 4:25 PM, Van Disaster said:

What might be a more interesting thought experiment is "what would you do if you were alone on Earth for a month".

I think an even better scenario is 'what if all but 1 in 100 million people disappeared? That way we have seventy-something people who may be able to contact each other if they're smart.'

[ChrisSpace]

On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2015 at 2:06 AM, Aperture Science said:

Watch the ISS reenter the atmosphere, as nobody will be there to reboost it.

Out of all the life-after-people events that would unfold, I think this would be one of the coolest to watch. Bonus points if you can find the wreckage.

On ‎11‎/‎3‎/‎2015 at 7:11 AM, Fatal_Gam3er said:

First thing ill do is launch myself, (With a sustainable food & Oxygen supply) from Cape Canaveral to the ISS (Via any rockets left on the pad at the time) and live there till it De-orbits.

This would only work if there were a fully-fueled rocket of the manned variety just waiting on the pad. Also, if you were the only human you'd have to figure out how to launch, fly and control it all without anyone outside (in other words, without any mission control). All in all it would be possible, but not easy. Also, can someone do the math of how long one person could last on the ISS' food/water/air if it had just been refilled?

7 hours ago, cubinator said:

I'll try to make a superconducting EmDrive to see if it works, and if it does I'll make a spaceship and go to the Moon.

Actually, that gives me an idea: Acquire the most high-isp propulsion system you can (be it an EmDrive, VASIMR, Ion engine or whatever), bring it with you to the ISS, connect up the ISS with Tiangong for extra living space, and just fly around the solar system, siphoning fuel from space probes when possible. There are probably lots of problems with this idea, but I do wonder: If the ISS and Tiangong were fully stocked with supplies, how long could you live in it?

5 hours ago, michaelsteele3 said:

Oh dear the things I would do with 693 Terrabytes (693500 Gigabytes) of RAM.

And what would I do with 40 Petabytes (693,500,000 Gigabytes) of memory?

I'd DOWNLOAD. THE. INTERNET.

Hmm... what's the biggest computer I could fit into my makeshift spaceship? The onboard computers would probably be quite powerful, but how would they compare with bringing up a proper gaming computer?

5 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

But once the shock wore off, I'd have to ask, why, and why me? I'm not special. An event like this should either have wiped me out as well or left other survivors. If it really does seem like I'm the one and only person left in the entire world, I'd have to suspect something more strange was going on, like I'm in a coma and dreaming, or I've been kidnapped and embedded in a virtual reality, or it's a test by some very powerful alien entity (but that still doesn't answer, why pick me instead of someone else?), etc. Almost any outlandish scenario starts to sound plausible by comparison.

I'd probably convince myself that there are a small handful of other survivors back on Earth, but it looks like none of them had the same idea as me. Come to think of it, before leaving LEO, would I be able to see the artificial lights of the other survivors? Probably not, since it would be hard to distinguish from natural lights such as bushfires.

4 hours ago, cantab said:

In civilisation collapse scenarios the biggest danger is other people and that doesn't apply here, and Britain has a mild climate and no real dangerous wildlife.

Dammit, while you're enjoying yourself over there i'd have to worry about Spiders, Snakes, Mosquitoes, Drop Bears...

[Xorth Tanovar]

12 hours ago, ChrisSpace said:

I think an even better scenario is 'what if all but 1 in 100 million people disappeared? That way we have seventy-something people who may be able to contact each other if they're smart.'

Take a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd3stfOcpq8

[PhylumCnidaria]

What if only the people in your school, staff, students, and visitors, existed.

first.... learning how to actually survive.

then.... EXTREME PROCREATION.

[Stargate525]

Start searching.

I'd realize my neighborhood is gone, then my country... Can't prove Europe. Would have to decide if I'd load up a ship, or risk trying to solo a plane with no flight experience and living through the inevitable crash landing.