What if everyone on Earth were to vanish?

I have an interesting poser for you all, a tricky one to get your head round.

What if every human on the planet was here one minute, and then just taken away somehow? What would happen to the stuff left behind? Would nuclear power stations meltdown? Obviously all the cars that were being driven would crash into each other etc. Bicylces would fall over. If you were the one person left, what would you do? What would happen in the long term?

Post all your thoughts.

BUTCHER

Hmm, didn't work.

If I was the last person on earth, I'd go crazy.

If I was the last person on Earth, I'd raise my rank in the server by killing all of the non-moving n00bs.

if I was the last person left on earth, I'd first make myself a sandwich. Then I'd go watch "The Omega Man" with Charlton Heston. In the long term, I'd be as eccentric as possible.

But you have a good point about the nuclear power plants and whatnot. Eventually, things would just stop working and you'd be in a survival scenario.

It sort of reminds me of a book I read back in middle school (well...one I partly read). In it, a strange new plague had wiped out everyone who was over the age o 15, thereby leaving society to children. Sort of an interesting thing, but I can't remember the title.

That would be kinda cool if everyone just disappeared.

The first thing I would do is steal as much money, guns, food, computers, arcade machines, game consoles and games and overall any expensive shit as I can. You never know if everyone could suddenly reappear out of nowhere. You gotta be prepared.

Oh, I'd also move my current house next to a giant mansion complete with machinegun turrets and robot guards.

Yeah... that would be awesome.

Oh yeah, after I do all that, I'd spend the rest of the time working on my Wolfenstein 3D mod. Heh.

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The nuclear plants wouldn't meltdown, they'd keep going for a while and then automatically shut themselves down at the first random fluke.

Be thankful that I don't need glasses...

Presumably they'd be a fair few fires, as kitchens and factories suddenly found themselves unsupervised. And without a fire brigade to sort it out, a lot of stuff would get destroyed.

I'd probably sit around for a bit waiting for that stuff to die down, then I'd get a car, learn to drive (shouldn't be hard with an unlimited supply of replacement cars and no other traffic), then just go exploring. It'd be cool to be able to just bust into places and look around.

I would gather up seeds, ammo and fishing tackle among other essentials. Finding a proper area to park my ass for the long run would be high priority (though not terribly difficult) as well.

If you were the last person on Earth, how would you know you were the last person on Earth?

Note that if this happens to a girl she can go to a sperm bank and start reverting the population issue.

I wouldn't believe I was alone, and I'd wander, always thinking perhaps someone eyes me from some building nearby. I'd just explore the abandoned abodes and read, and write some sort of diary to leave behind in various formats.

myk said:

Note that if this happens to a girl she can go to a sperm bank and start reverting the population issue.

Well that wouldn't last very long at all. Although it is a very interesting spin on the situation.

In such a situation, you would have to plan your actions quickly but carefully. One critical decision can spell the difference between imminent death and a long-lasting life of wealth.

Since humans physically vanish, disease wouldn't be much of a problem. You would need to quickly transport yourself to a small city to take advantage of the fresh chaos. Wrecked vehicles would be everywhere, so you should take low-traffic, unpopulated roads to avoid the debris. You should loot as quickly and effectively as possible before fires destroy the city.

Find yourself a large pickup truck. Get some gas containers a nearby store. Proceed to the nearest gas station to fill up your tank and about four gas containers. Then proceed to a wholesale/retailer where you can stock up on survival items such as non-perishable food items, batteries, generators, insulation, and repair kits. Get as much information as possible on vehicle repair, as your vehicle will be your lifeline.

You will likely need to move. Pick an ultra-modern house with complete solar electricity and heating.

You're going to have to start gardening, so suck it up and get to it. Get some fruity magazines.

Finally, get a semi tractor-trailer fully-loaded with about seven brand new vehicles. Spend the next few days scavenging as much fuel and foodstuffs as possible. Always be careful of the debris. If you followed these instructions carefully, you should be able to enjoy a casual lifestyle complete with electricity and heating. One last thing: Whatever you do, do NOT risk serious injury. Medical attention is kinda unavailable.

If I was the last person on Earth...I'd probably farm corn.

If I were the last person on earth I would go to Area 51 and activate the alien beacon. Then when they came I'd sell the earth and become richer then god. Then I would travel the universe doing various groovy things.

I'd wait for all IRC accounts to time out and then take over any channel I liked. Bwahahahaha!

I would leave and find out where everyone went or I would just leave, but most likely I would be interested about where everyone went.

In this scenario I'd never bother with power plants. Once I get bored of looking for survivors, I'd have a little weep.

Once I get over the fact that I am alone, I would find as much ammo as I could and go beserk. I'd smash shit up, I'd shoot out windows, I'd try to make explosives and blow stuff up.

I'd forage from supermarkets and begin globe trotting, I'd start walking obviously, I'd get a car sharpish, and I'd train to wswim the channel.

If I made it across I would continue my rampage. I'd see the foreign sights, I'd check out any military bases I stumbled across for rations or non-rotting foods.

Once my urge for vandalism has been satiated, I'd increase my knowledge of things (or try to, I don't doubt that I'd give up) by reading. I'd probably write useful things to know in some memoirs just incase there are others.

I would eventually dispair and put myself out of my misery, hopefully with a Single Action Army.

Psyonisis said:

If I were the last person on earth I would strip naked and run down a downtown street screaming my head off.

Why wait for people to disappear? I did that just yesterday.

I would die of loneliness

^^^

Linguica said:

I would die of loneliness

Awwww :(

I would probably blow my own head off.

Linguica said:

I would die of loneliness

Old chinese saying; man who just been dumped should no post on doomworld forum.

Anyway some good answers, AndrewB scores for realism, Fredrik scores for 1337 nerdy IRC-related answer, Bashe scores for making me laugh.

I think what would annoy most would be the loss of electricty and presumably the internet. Sad isn't it? And having nothing to shag woudl get long after a while, still with any luck there'd be a realdoll nearby.

Would anyone try and attempt flying a plane? Somehow it scares me to think I probably wouldn't be able to get myself to America etc. if I had to somehow.

I would attempt to download the entire Internet.

pritch said:

Would anyone try and attempt flying a plane? Somehow it scares me to think I probably wouldn't be able to get myself to America etc.

If one doesnt have flight experiece it might be better to try a boat. Learning to get a ship accross the atlantic would probably be safer and more succesfull than fooling around with a plane. Sure it takes longer but it's not like you have a job or classes to worry about.

Bashe said:

If I was the last person on Earth...I'd probably farm corn.

I'd farm (really) for food, keep livestock and hunt animals to survive.

Oh yeah, I'd grow so much pot it wouldn't be funny.

If one doesnt have flight experiece it might be better to try a boat. Learning to get a ship accross the atlantic would probably be safer and more succesfull than fooling around with a plane. Sure it takes longer but it's not like you have a job or classes to worry about.

It's also easier to not miss, as it's hard not to run into the American coastline.

If all the humans just vanished, then sure, a lot of the shit we have created would melt-down, blow-up or just generally make a mess. But the real bonus is that once that was done, it'd be done and the world would recover without messy humans to make a whole bunch of new stuff to mess it up. Until perhaps evolution created another race intent on shitting in its own nest.

If I were the only person left. I dunno, all that stuff left lying around would cause me concern. In the short term, however, I suppose there would be stuff I could gather, nice cars, fuel for them, nice place to life, free food... But I guess, sooner or later, power would go off, reserves of stuff (food, materials, whatever) would go off, degrade, break down etc and by that time I'd better make sure that I had sorted out my life and the skills I'd need. Then, no doubt, I'd do something stupid like fall over and break something significant in my body and die alone with no emergency services and no-one to treat me.