What would you do if you woke up one day to find you were the last person alive?

[Thumpalumpacus]

What would you do if you woke up one day to find that you were the last person alive? Everyone else had disappeared. No sign that they had died, no sign that they had even existed. All you had was memories and their possessions and food and water they left behind.

P.S. no animals either. Just you and the fruit, plants and mushrooms. What next?

I'd log on and wonder why there were no new posts.

[c172]

No, I have nice tits, too!

Seriously guys... what would you do? c172 gave a serious answer. He said he would hang out at the supermarket. I don't get the part about then dying because no agriculture though.

Oh I see, the food would run out.

Okay let's reframe the question:

You have infinite food, drink, oxygen. You are able to live your whole life perfectly healthily. At least physically healthily. You just have no people or animals to associate yourself with. You're completely alone.

I say at least physically healthy because one of the questions is... would you go insane? Would you get depressed? Would you eventually commit suicide? Would you end up drawing a face on a football ala Wilson from Castaway?

Would you be bored forever?

Would life be meaningless without persons and animals there to keep you company?

Or would you find ways to entertain yourself and be happy while completely and utterly alone?

Yeah, the food situation. That's what I was getting at.

As for the reframed question, I have very low mobility, so I'd kind of be inclined to keep around my condo, and I think it would be sad. No AF folks. No NPR. If my computer runs into issues, no one to call about it. 

If I didn't have the mobility problem, I'd probably just walk all the way down the several miles of Washington Street that lead to San Diego International Airport's cargo and private plane area and jump the fence, walk the tarmac for a little while, just because I'm an aviation buff and I like creepy industrial areas that are off limits to the rest of us. I love the mystery of it.

One issue that you might have overseen is failing health. Even with food, water, and oxygen, where are the doctors? Where's AMR for a trip to to ER when I get a kidney infection or hurt myself in a fall? Not sure I could live all that long without health maintenance and emergency services. Even if I didn't have spina bifida.

Very interesting hypothetical, though. It's something I'd like to live for maybe a day (but with normal transit offerings).

[vorlon13]

First 1/3 (m/l) of this movie is an exploration of the topic.  Even in the rest of movie, the population never exceeds 3, so the entire movie is pretty close.

BTW, this is a VERY good movie, but very few people ever saw it.

[Foxaèr]

First 1/3 (m/l) of this movie is an exploration of the topic.  Even in the rest of movie, the population never exceeds 3, so the entire movie is pretty close.

BTW, this is a VERY good movie, but very few people ever saw it.

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I'll have to give that movie a watch.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

In all seriousness, I likely blow my brains out. I wouldn't want to live in a world without other people. 

Boru

Mass extinctions don't happen like that. Conditions that lead to mass extinctions don't happen suddenly but are a collection of events.

I would say if 45 gets stupid and fucks up our planet with a nuclear war, I hope I am directly under that nuke so I get vaporized and don't feel it. 

I wouldn't want to live in the aftermath of a global nuclear war regardless of how many humans are left over. Ground wars alone, from what I see in human history are horrible enough by themselves.

Sorry, I don't understand your reply.  What do mass extinctions (and you're right about how they happen) have to do with my blowing me brains out?

Boru

[GUBU]

No, I have nice tits, too!

Great. Now I'm masturbating again. Gee thanks I was really deprived of that

Seriously guys... what would you do? c172 gave a serious answer.

I thought my reference to Time Enough at Last was serious. If the world ended and I was the last alive, I'd turn to books or blow my brains out.

[Edwardo Piet]

Sorry that I skipped a lot of serious answers. I'ts not excuse but I'm having a really odd day.

[Joods]

Okay let's reframe the question:

You have infinite food, drink, oxygen. You are able to live your whole life perfectly healthily. At least physically healthily. You just have no people or animals to associate yourself with. You're completely alone.

I say at least physically healthy because one of the questions is... would you go insane? Would you get depressed? Would you eventually commit suicide? Would you end up drawing a face on a football ala Wilson from Castaway?

Would you be bored forever?

Would life be meaningless without persons and animals there to keep you company?

Or would you find ways to entertain yourself and be happy while completely and utterly alone?

I'd want to die. At some point, I would be too old and decrepit to care for myself. Why get to that point and then suffer for who knows how long?
 
I'd miss my kids. I would miss their scents (yes, a mother knows what her kids smell like, regardless) their voices, their smiles, their hugs, their laughter, their companionship, their bickering, the little inside jokes we have, the games we play. I would die of a broken heart. 
That'd be the hardest thing about this. If my kids aren't here, in this scenario, I'd have nothing left to live for. All the food, water and oxygen in the world doesn't mean shit to me if my kids were suddenly gone.

[ignoramus]

Yes, but Jood, you woke up and everybody's gone. I wouldn't just come to conclusions that everyone's dead.
Just missing at this stage due to some inexplicable event.
How do you know that aliens didn't take everyone to a mother ship for safe keeping because the earth is about to explode or something? And they just happen to miss you, that's all?

You'd at least try to find out what's going on, wouldn't you?
I would probably spend the rest of my life trying to solve the mystery. Why am I the only one left.
Is there a profound reason for it? Are you the chosen one?

[Edwardo Piet]

I also thought about saying imagine a scenario where memories of everyone you ever knew disappeared too. But then I thought fuck that that would be such a fucking bizarre scenario because you'd also have absolutely no explanation for why or how you even spoke a language or even who the fuck you even were. It would be like being born into adulthood but without a family, friends, parents or even a society.

One thing is for sure is I bet that this bizarre situation ^^ would be an awful lot happier. We wouldn't know what we were missing if we had no memory of other people ever even existing in the first place.

But because we've evolved to be social beings.... I bet we'd still eventually become rather bonkers even in this scenario.

I mean, imagine knowing how to dress yourself but having no memory of your parents who taught you to address yourself.

Actually this is much like scenario one in the OP + severe dementia.