Imagine you are the last human on Earth.
Assuming that the planet isn't completely destroyed, it wouldn't be hard to make your own electricity. Gasoline-powered generators are noisy and smelly, but would probably be the easiest to find. Would also eat into your limited gas supply, if you plan on also using some for vehicles.
Solar panels are dead quiet, but have some drawbacks (less power on cloudy days, could be damaged by weather, etc.)
Depending on your location, you could probably rig up and/or tap into a wind or water turbine.
In I Am Legend/The Last Man on Earth (not to be confused with the Will Smith movie), the grocery store he frequented was run on a generator, and he'd make sure to keep it topped off with coal so the refrigerators would keep running.
I was looking into living "off the grid" once, most people do it with car batteries, so you'd just have to find a car port charger for your laptop (the "cigarette lighter" kind).
Find some DVDs/BluRays, no need to download movies.
The 1954 novel was "I am legend". It inspired three Hollywood movies. "The Last Man on Earth" (starring Vincent Price)in 1964, "the Omega Man" starring Charleton Heston in 1971, and the 2007 Will Smith movie "I Am Legend". They vary in how much they adhere to the novel. The Omega Man is the only one I have actually seen, and its good. I get the impression that both the earlier and the later Will Smith films are also quite good.
I would run down the streets naked.
I would raid all the shelves in the supermarkets.
I would go to one of those soft play centres and dive in the ball pit.
I'd drive a bus.
I'd explore all the local abandoned buildings that are on private property.
I'd explore people's homes.
I'd ride everywhere on rollerblades, on the roads.
I'd ride on swivel chairs down long hospital corridors.
But, I think in reality I would be very lonely and scared. It would be cool if it were me and my boyfriend left.
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Female
OK, maybe some aspies would be fine with it.
But if you got to do all of your pet experiments how would you be able to publish the results? And if you couldnt publish what would be the point?
And where would get the grants to do the experiments? You could steal supplies for your experiments from abandoned property left by the absent other humans, but could you really steal enough stuff to do an actual cutting edge experiment?
Last edited by naturalplastic on 23 Jan 2022, 11:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
Yes.
The OP should have taken survival off of the table as an issue by stipulating something like "you're the last person on earth, but somehow magically your survival is taken care of (like you stumble on a huge abandoned grocery store with a life time supply of food, and a nuclear powered generator to keep its fridges going forever). So the question becomes just about -whatever it is he is curious about (the philosophical implications of eternal solitude, or whatever).
OK, maybe some aspies would be fine with it.
But if you got to do all of your pet experiments how would you be able to publish the results? And if you couldnt publish what would be the point?
And where would get the grants to do the experiments? You could steal supplies for your experiments from abandoned property left by the absent other humans, but could you really steal enough stuff to do an actual cutting edge experiment?
At that point, I would not care if it gets published or not. It would be knowledge gained for only me to know. If no one is left alive but me, is it really stealing at that point? It would be as if you owned everything. Self-survival is not the highest priority for me, the quest for knowledge is. My lifetime is restricted already due to genetics (heart failure issues), so why not enjoy what I seek in the time I have left?
As for cutting edge research, the answer is: Yes, I would be able to do that in two areas of my research. I have done that with a budget of less than $100 on something that is going to publication this year.
I don't suppose he meant anything about moral judgement. But no, it's not really stealing. When there are no others to hurt or to help, ethics and morality are meaningless.
OK, maybe some aspies would be fine with it.
But if you got to do all of your pet experiments how would you be able to publish the results? And if you couldnt publish what would be the point?
And where would get the grants to do the experiments? You could steal supplies for your experiments from abandoned property left by the absent other humans, but could you really steal enough stuff to do an actual cutting edge experiment?
At that point, I would not care if it gets published or not. It would be knowledge gained for only me to know. If no one is left alive but me, is it really stealing at that point? It would be as if you owned everything. Self-survival is not the highest priority for me, the quest for knowledge is. My lifetime is restricted already due to genetics (heart failure issues), so why not enjoy what I seek in the time I have left?
As for cutting edge research, the answer is: Yes, I would be able to do that in two areas of my research. I have done that with a budget of less than $100 on something that is going to publication this year.
As Diamond said I didnt mean "stealing" in a moral sense. Thats irrelevant.
Gosh! I was certain that Joseph Priestly (in George Washington's time) was the last scientist in history to be able to make world changing discoveries on less than a 100 bucks.
OK, maybe some aspies would be fine with it.
But if you got to do all of your pet experiments how would you be able to publish the results? And if you couldnt publish what would be the point?
And where would get the grants to do the experiments? You could steal supplies for your experiments from abandoned property left by the absent other humans, but could you really steal enough stuff to do an actual cutting edge experiment?
At that point, I would not care if it gets published or not. It would be knowledge gained for only me to know. If no one is left alive but me, is it really stealing at that point? It would be as if you owned everything. Self-survival is not the highest priority for me, the quest for knowledge is. My lifetime is restricted already due to genetics (heart failure issues), so why not enjoy what I seek in the time I have left?
As for cutting edge research, the answer is: Yes, I would be able to do that in two areas of my research. I have done that with a budget of less than $100 on something that is going to publication this year.
As Diamond said I didnt mean "stealing" in a moral sense. Thats irrelevant.
Gosh! I was certain that Joseph Priestly (in George Washington's time) was the last scientist in history to be able to make world changing discoveries on less than a 100 bucks.
Graphene first separated in bulk from graphite by sticky tape in the early 2000s is but a recent example. Anyone could have done it if they had the inspiration to do so. It won the researchers Nobel Prizes for their method. It cost thousands more to analyze the material using electron microscopes, but the method was done very cheaply. Inventing a process to make a new material can be the least expensive part sometimes.
https://www.graphene.manchester.ac.uk/l ... -graphene/
No no no.
Yes.
No no no.
The Last Man on Earth is pretty good...I mean, like most movies, it leaves out a lot of great bits from the book, but it's good for 1964.
The Will Smith movie takes a lot of inspiration from The Omega Man, has almost nothing to do with the original novel, and is, just in general, not a very enjoyable film. It doesn't even make sense to call it "I Am Legend", since the "legend" itself is nowhere in the script.
I didn't care much for Omega Man the first time I saw it, but if you can separate it from I Am Legend and view it more as a Planet of the Apes/Mad Max sort of hybrid, it's not too shabby.
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I'm looking for Someone to change my life. I'm looking for a Miracle in my life.
Part 1.
I wake up, slept soundly. I can't see what time I wake up on my electric alarm clock.
Strange, the power almost never goes out here. My watch still works, my watch is on my bedside table.
It is half past seven in the morning, also the time indication of the sun that comes out gives a familiar feeling.
Just brush your teeth first. Hey, no power in the bathroom either, no light bulb. The pressure on the water has also dropped.
With toothpaste on my toothbrush, I walk to my balcony to brush my teeth. How wonderfully quiet it is on the street, a few and only a few birds that let out their morning song.
No cars, trucks, no public transport. Not even a plane to be seen high in the sky.
Through the living room I walk to the kitchen, and with a carbonated bottle of spring water I rinse the toothpaste from my mouth.
When taking that bottle of spring water from the fridge I notice that no light comes on in the fridge, very slowly a light starts to burn in my head.
Something's going on, this isn't normal, that light in my head tells me. I will call my mother and see if my mother has electricity/running water.
Thankfully, my battery powered phone works. My phone works in the sense that my phone lights up when it is switched on, but wifi and connection to the KPN network do not work.
The mechanical extraction that works on electricity does not work either, luckily I have flap windows that I open to ventilate my flat.
Slight panic starts to take over my mind, I take half (12.5 milligrams) of quetiapine to calm down. I take these antipsychotics with a sip of spring water.
And the rest of the bottle of spring water I put in three large scoops of instant coffee. A strong cup of coffee usually works well on an empty stomach in the morning.
Is this a dream or is this reality? I'm starting to doubt myself, doubting is by definition something that I carry with me since birth, but I've never experienced it as bad as now.
My Lenovo labtop runs on a battery/battery just like my smartphone. The battery is still 91% full, the Lenovo is started within a few seconds.
There is some logic in it that if my smartphone can't connect to WiFi, my laptop can't either, especially when I consider that the lights on my white modem aren't lit either.
I can just view my photo and movie files, the battery drops from 91% to 79%. The quetiapine and coffee have done their calming work.
I put on my coat and go to my neighbor, ask if they have electricity.
When pressing the doorbell, I actually got an immediate answer, the doorbell doesn't work, ergo, they have no power.
I can see something moving in the kitchen, her dog is beeping at an empty bowl. No dog biscuits for Pukkie.
My neighbor sometimes goes on holiday for a few days, but she would never leave her dog alone.
Water slowly seeps onto the floor through the freezer, a freezer that has probably not had power for quite some time.
Pukkie makes a virtue of necessity and starts to slurp the water from the ground, I tap the kitchen window with my fingers and Pukkie wags his tail happily,
something that makes me happy again. So apparently I'm not the only one who has been cut off from western comforts, I'm going back home.
And my freezer is defrosting too. Every disadvantage has its advantage, according to Johan Cruijff, and indeed, without power there can be no short circuit, without + no -,
this also means that every advantage has a disadvantage. There are long-life foods in my kitchen cupboards, but those fish fingers and chicken satay in my freezer,
as well as fresh milk, cheese and leeks, don't last long. I plop down on the couch and read Dick Swaab's book 'our creative brain'.
To be continued.
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