Okay, let’s get weird, friends!
Let me throw a scenario out there and you tell me what you think about it…
You wake up one day, get ready for work, and then it hits you: you’re the only person left on the planet.
Everything is still functioning as far as power and lights and stuff like that, but there ain’t a soul around…
So, what would you do if this happened to you?
Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about this.
1. Live it up!
“Have fun.
Go joy riding, steal expensive stuff (not that it belongs to anyone now).
Move in to a luxury house or apartment.”
2. In the buff.
“Spend the rest of my life naked.
Throw off the garments of oppression and be one with Mother Earth.”
3. Anybody out there?
“I would deduce that the situation was caused by a supernatural or extraterrestrial being.
I would try to establish communication with said being…trying to make sense of such an impossible situation.”
4. This belongs to me now.
“Find a rich person’s self sufficient house somewhere with solar panels and other off grid eco things like composting toilet for when services eventually fail.
Raid loads of supermarkets for canned goods and military bases for MRE’s to stock up food.
I’d also shift a library worth of books and movies close by.”
5. Let’s take a trip.
“Go to the local airport and find a clean, low time single engine airplane (Cessna 182).
Fuel it up and go sight seeing across the US, one small airfield at a time.
Stop in for lunch and fire up the grill at any airport I feel like. No more $100 hamburgers!!!”
6. Here’s the plan.
“Go to northern Canada. Far enough away from nuclear power, so when the reactors fail I won’t be killed immediately by them.
Collect as many solar panels as I could, find an electric car. Constantly have music playing so the reality of absolute solitude doesn’t fail me. Find as much food as possible, and build a bunker I suppose.
Minus the online interactions, I don’t do much socializing anyways, so I would just play through as many solo campaigns available for video games, open as many tabs of porn as possible before the internet dies, on a variety of solar powered computers.
Maybe download MSN Messenger and talk to smarter child again, it helped me through my early years when I was alone.”
7. Survival.
“I would probably try to survive. Surviving off the leftovers in groceries stores would be possible for a bit (obviously excluding produce and meat/dairy).
Without insects, farming would be super difficult. I’ve done some hand-pollination before in an earlier life, so I might be able to figure it out, but it would be rough.
If I were able to survive via agriculture, I would eventually try and find an accessible library. If I’m utterly alone, I might as well try and find some sort of entertainment.
However, I would keep a loaded weapon on me at all times for two reasons: (1) meeting SOMETHING, it would be terrifying without the common societal framework to provide some protection, and (2) if I were seriously injured or if I became seriously ill, there is no sense to prolong my own suffering.
I’m very much an introvert. Even then, isolation would obviously get to me. But I think I’d handle that part better than most people. Who knows, though…”
8. Not too bad.
“Mourn my friends.
Feel kinda bad for feeling a little indifferent about my enemies.
Learn how to pick locks and go see how other people used to live.
Figure out whether the systems which keep me alive are sustainable or not.
Build a giant couch fort.
Engage in construction projects without proper permitting or inspections.
Learn how to bake.
Add a balcony/porch/garden trellis on the side of the house because why the heck not?”
9. Enjoy it.
“Realistically, Try to enjoy what’s left.
I, for example, would grab a car and get over to Disney world.
If the electricity is working, I can get ride most of the rides.
Maybe set up some system to push the buttons to launch the rides.
Once I’m done enjoying a world with no laws/private property/people, I would probably sit around watching youtube while not eating, letting myself die and go up to Heaven.”
10. Moving on up.
“I’d move to to the Walmart/ grocery story/ hardware store area. I’d collect the local solar panels for when the power finally goes out. Get a rain capture system going. Download wikipedia.
I’d move all freezable foods to the freezer areas and then probably start dehydrating foods, but it would take a long time for the canned goods to go out. If there were no insects I’d look up pollination of plants by hand for food.
I’d make sure there was a lot of gas in containers for future power outage. Read up on first aid. Have a stiff drink and an excellent meal every night.
Any further specific short term plans would depend on how long the electricity kept going and the season: daylight, heating, etc. Long term plans may mean moving due to water drainage of my area being dependent on maintenance. Higher ground or warmer climate may be needed.”
11. Do what you want.
“First, I’d move into a really nice, posh house somewhere in London because why not?
It’s well situated, and they’re not using it any more. Then I’d take a motorbike (cars presumably still litter the roads, so that’s out of the question in a city) and begin to hoard.
Water, as well as a collection system for the long-term.
Petrol, so I have lots of it about. I’ve heard it goes off after a while, but I should be good for a while so I can gather things.
Food. If every living thing is gone hunting is out, so I gather all the tinned food I can find, and keep it, as well as perishables which I will keep refrigerated by a generator for as long as I can.
Then, I’ll sit back and enjoy peace, forever (or like six weeks and then I’ll cap myself). I’ll read endless books, and listen to endless music (vinyl, so I don’t risk losing it in an inevitable internet shutdown), explore a city now devoid of people, of tourists, wander around peoples houses, do whatever the f*ck I want, totally free.”
12. Stay busy.
“Go and wander around a ton. Through people’s homes. Through stores and office towers. Explore a ton.
Once I have satisfied that (which could take a while) I would probably get a sweet trailer and go off camping somewhere beautiful to hopefully resign myself to being truly “forever alone”. Then I would farm a fair bit while learning how to fly on a small Cessna in the hopes I would eventually be able to fly a plane.
After that, explore the world and all it has to offer. Hopefully keeping my mind busy would distract me from what could be a crushing loneliness.”
13. Here’s a good answer.
“Walk around looking for people for a day or two.
Start living out of the local grocery store because I don’t have enough food at my current place. I’d probably get myself a gun from a Walmart or something because if I encounter someone else, they might be hostile without laws or society. Probably start crying myself to sleep when I realise I’ll never see another human and never fall in love.
I’ll probably watch as the utilities and services slowly fail over the course of several weeks. The electrical plants will run out of fuel within a day or two, but the heat of the furnaces and the angular momentum of the turbines will provide a few days of power while they wind down.
Nuclear plants, hydroelectric, solar, and wind will be stable for longer but they’ll all fail within weeks or months without upkeep, unless I’m really really lucky.
Sewage and water will probably be gone in a week, since there’s a fair amount of maintenance and upkeep with water purification and/or treatment plants. Lots of switching tanks and balancing chemical levels.
Clinically major depression will set in after a few days to a week or two due to total isolation. I’ll have trouble sleeping because no natural sounds will exist at night except for the weather. I may start to go insane when I start becoming depressed, thought the insanity may hold off for as long as several years if I’m very lucky and actively try to maintain my mental health.
I start talking to videos as though they were conversations, just to talk to something, until the power plants supplying the servers go dark.
Eventually, I will accept that I am absolutely alone. My friends and family are gone forever. My career is over before it began. Both pillars of my existence, family and contributing to human knowledge, are now meaningless.
I will also realize that life will be harder than anything possible to imagine. For the remainder of my life, I will be limited to the abilities of a single individual and the resources of whatever stocks the shelves of stores within a several dozen mile radius. The roads will probably be full of wrecked cars, crashed when people vanished, and all human infrastructure will degrade rapidly.
After these realizations, in the face of inevitable death, lifelong absolute solitude, and perpetual unrelenting hardship I will probably drive to the nearest military installation. By then, I know that my life is meaningless. However, I still fear pain. I would probably construct a helmet of high-velocity explosives and end my life.
The universe looks on with indifference at a single smear of human among the smoldering wreckage of humanity. It had never been a significant planet anyway, in the cosmic sense anyway. Now, even less so.”
Okay, you know the drill…
Now we want to hear from you!
In the comments, tell us what you’d do if you realized you were the only person left on Earth. Let’s see what you can come up with!
