Provided you knew what you were doing, indefinitely. Or until you died of old age or managed to contract a deadly disease/cancer/manage to injure yourself in a life threatening way that you can’t treat yourself.
You might not be happy about it. But growing basic crops, storing away dried grains for the winter, hunting and dressing animals, making a fire to cook them, etc. should be well within the reach of anyone capable of reading this. Neanderthals could do it, so can you.
If you didn’t know what you were doing, well, until you ran out of easily scavengable canned goods and/or died of botulism from eating one of them that wasn’t as canned as you thought.
Yeah my plan (dream) has always been like this:
- Use the internet while I have it (assuming people just all disappear suddenly) to download survival guides, solar panel repair/installation PDFs, maps, etc. Anything I can think of, I’ll download
- Gas only lasts so long. I can use chemicals that extend it, but it’s definitely limited. I’d start with a gas powered truck and eventually move into electric vehicles. Batteries aren’t forever either… But I’d try.
- I’d move to a warm, temperate climate
- I’d find a building that claims it is powered by solar panels most of the year. I’d use that as my home
- I’d immediately begin trying to farm. I have a black thumb so this would take me some years to get done correctly. But I’d hopefully have some potatoes and grain growing by the end of a year
- In the meantime, I might find things to occupy my time such as: finding videogames to play, raising chickens, fishing, collecting guns/ammo, collecting books to preserve, storing solar panels, backup equipment, etc.
My end goal would be to survive as long as I’m happy. I’m pretty introverted so that would last a while. I’d use animals to keep me company. I believe nature would take us over pretty quickly. It would be hard to maintain the house, solar, etc. forever. But if I could, I would.
My wife and I already do a lot of foraging in our area and we have several guides for edible food. We also do some canning and prepping for disasters.
I don’t think a disaster would be a picnic. People are the problem. But if they disappeared suddenly, I think it would be pretty livable.
Use the internet while I have it (assuming people just all disappear suddenly) to download survival guides, solar panel repair/installation PDFs, maps, etc. Anything I can think of, I’ll download
AI would be really useful in this scenario. Have a whole internet’s worth of information at your disposal with a fraction of the storage costs.
Probably still want the actual manuals and guides for the important stuff tho…
Have a whole internet’s worth of information at your disposal with a fraction of the storage costs.
without humans to keep it going the internet’s going bye bye quickly.
I mean like, a local model. Hence the benefit of having the info at a fraction of the storage cost.
oh man this is hilarious. so you think if the AI is local the corpus it’s been taught upon doesn’t need to be stored?
it’s worse - you need the processing power (many many many gpus requiring enormous amounts of power) coupled to enormous amounts of material to educate the language model on.
sorry man there aren’t any shortcuts.
so you think if the AI is local the corpus it’s been taught upon doesn’t need to be stored?
You don’t need to store the training data. What’s “hilarious” is how confidently incorrect you are.
This, for example, is a model small enough to run on your phone that was trained on ~895GB of data.
Even if I did need to keep all of that data, and even if I also needed to train it myself, what’s stopping me from just stealing all the equipment I need if I’m the last person on earth???
and what use would this be to someone after the world ends?
AGAIN THE POWER REQUIREMENTS BELLEND.
Do you have a fusion reactor in your pocket?
And a freshwater source the size of a lake? because you’ll need both to run the data center required to run anything USEFUL.
phew… steal all the equipment you want, you wouldn’t be able to do shit all with it. just keeping a single data center UP would be a herculean task for a single person - without robots or trained monkeys or alien buds to help you I’m exceptionally dubious.
I can just imagine you pushing a shopping cart of 4080ti’s through the hellscape towards a data center thinking “shit yeah I GOT this apocalypse solved” l-o-fucking-l
Neanderthals (and humans for that matter) did indeed but they did it in groups, usually. Being alone really stacks the odds against you I think.
Well, you’re going to have a much harder time taking down wooly mammoths, that’s for sure.
etc. should be well within the reach of anyone capable of reading this. Neanderthals could do it, so can you.
Oh you greatly overrate us internet people… 🧌
Honestly, the biggest issue would be mental, trying to figure out if there was any reason to continue.
Luckily I have a lot of experience with that debate.
So the last survivor will be chronically depressed?
If it’s me, yes.
So… Congrats? I’m sorry?
Hope you’re alright in some way 💖
In some ways I am, yes. Thank you.
That’s good. If you ever feel down, just remember: you’re not alone. A lot of us are miserable sometimes.
Wait, that doesn’t help at all…
No, no, it kind of does.
There are very few humans who would not be depressed if they were the last person on earth. Even the most introverted among us are still, well, human.
I’ve always wanted a zombie movie that focused on the absurd boredom and how you might combat it. Like setting up Rube Goldberg killing machines
I’m pretty sure I’ve read some zombie stories that brought up that very idea, killing the zombies in fun ways just because they were bored. One I can think of would be Newsflesh. Not about boredom per se, but humanity has learnt to more-or-less coexist with the Z virus. Post-post-apocalyptic setting. Killing zombies in fun and novel ways isn’t the theme, but comes up now and then. Really interesting novel.
They kinda did that in I Am Legend
19 years, 5 months, 21 days, 16 hours, and 23 minutes.
If the material world survived, living in a large city, I could probably scavenge for non-perishable foods for quite some time.
If it’s a nuclear wasteland and I’m fending off mutants, I guess it depends on how many caps and nuka-cola I can find.
19 years, 5 months, 21 days, 16 hours, and 23 minutes
someone did the math
Indefinitely. Just punch a tree; punch a sheep; punch a rock. Y’all so lazy these days.
In complete isolation I think a lot of people (including me) would probably kill ourselves just after few months. We all need at least some social interaction to stay with healthy mind.
Aside from that, what the hell is even the point of living if you are the only person left?
Aside from that, what the hell is even the point of living if you are the only person left?
Visiting museums naked? Cmon dog
Just when you think the “last person on earth” fantasy has been fully explored!
Plenty of time to read.
Until you tread on your eyeglasses.
I’m assuming my dog would still be alive. So I’d just go on adventures with him.
OMG, so many things would improve!
OK, healthcare is an issue. But if only humans disappeared? There’s so much canned and freeze dried food; I could probably live off a single REI for a couple of years. Pharmacies to be raided, although I’d have to find an old-school reference for drugs, uses, and dosages. Hell, I’d spend a couple of years just outfitting a survivalist cabin near Yosemite or Frank Church Wilderness, and then a couple more backpacking out of the cabin, returning only for provisions.
I’ve lived without prior before; it’s not that hard. I know there would be psychological challenges, but the physical ones really do compensate quite a bit.
I suppose it really depends on why I’m the last person on earth. If it was nuclear fallout, I’d probably be dead pretty quick.
If we’re under the assumption that everybody just poofed away and I’m the last person, absolutely a few months minimum. I’m within easy walking distance of some stores that have plethora of canned and preserved foods and liquids. I also know some places that already have full solar infrastructure already integrated.
All that being said, I’d probably off myself. I’m fairly non-social to begin with but I’d still be unhappy never being able to communicate with anyone ever again on top of major resource struggles in the future. Never find a partner, probably not even a domesticated pet as they’d all likely die within a week or so if I don’t prioritize that. Sounds incredibly sad and lonely
Round about a day or two. I’d likely make an oopsie while letting the zoo animals out and get myself slaughtered.
Probably depends on how everyone else disappeared
On the pro side, I live in southern California where I’m not going to have problems surviving the weather, even without electricity. I don’t get bored easily, I like to read, and I’d probably entertain myself exploring. As others mentioned, food probably is not an issue, though I’d have to make sure I got the right combination of proteins and amino acids once meat wasn’t available (or bring myself to hunt).
On the con side, I’m in my early 60s and, though I’m reasonably healthy, it’s only going to be so long before I have some health condition that, if nothing else, makes it hard for me to go out and about for food.
The only issue I’d have is mental health. Pets can only ease the need for social needs to a certain extent.
I would miss my wife and kids horribly, but I’m one of those folks who always feels kind of alone, even when around other people, so I think I’d be okay.
Depends on what happened to the world, what resources I have, time of year, etc.
Assuming decent conditions and luck (nothing saving you from a severe infection gotten because wrong place wrong time), likely a fair few decades. I have a lot of survival knowledge, both theory and practical - and I refresh myself on a regular basis
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About a week until I couldn’t even stand up anymore due to Long COVID.
Probably until my first paper cut and infection after all the antibiotic starts to expire, it’s likely game over some time soon after.
How often do you take antibiotics now?
As infrequently as possible. Maybe a year ago last time for a sinus infection I couldn’t clear on my own.
You are way overestimating how often antibiotics are needed. I’ve used them once in my life and it was only a precaution, probably not needed. People who get antibiotics for every little thing are largely responsible for their loss in effectiveness.
I don’t disagree with you. Antibiotic overuse is a real problem. I’ve had surgeries without needing antibiotics afterwards. I try very hard not to rely on antibiotics but have allergies and shitty sinuses. I had an on and off sinus infection I couldn’t clear for something like 9 months. Used every trick in the book and I’d think I’d finally cleared it all, but no.
Happy that you seem more healthy overall than me. Good fortune for you.
After getting over the urge to kill my self…
Longer then one would expect
Most of us don’t have or are only kinda aware of real survival skills. - farming, hunting, fishing — okay there’s your food
Next thing is shelter and clothing- are the people just gone? Or is shit really messed up?
- you can get good clothes and if housing is still standing you’ll be fine for a long time.
Holding out hope that there are any other survivors would help you go on, I believe as you’d want to find them.
So yes there are no numbers, but if you’re in a good place mentally. You can survive a long time
It’s not even necessarily hunting/farming, it’s being able to safely preserve it and survive a winter without starving or botulism.
If you can boil water, you can can. Jars are reusable. Lids will be your most scarce commodity after a while (you shouldn’t reuse the lids after they have been under pressure). Build a little smokehouse and you can preserve your meat.
I don’t even worry about downloading how to’s. There are libraries and book stores that have this information that isn’t dependent on any kind of electrical device to access it. These sites probably won’t be high priority scavenge sites to the average survivor either.
Winter meals will be mostly canned veggies, bread, and beans for protein. Salt or smoke cured meats infrequently. You’ll learn to trap small game or hunt deer. Surviving will be a lot of work but it’s totally within reach of anyone who can camp or is crafty/handy.
Most of my problems are caused by other people being evil. I’d take being the last person on earth over that any day. I wouldn’t live a super long time just because of lack of access to healthcare but I can’t afford that today anyway.
