How long would a person survive if he the last remaining human being on Earth?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Enoc, Dec 9, 2014.

  1. TBodillia Registered Senior Member

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    159

    OK, figure electricity has been around for 140 or so years: mankind has survived longer without electricity than with.

    Why do you need a car, a plane, a ship, or the internet if you are the last person alive on Earth?

    If you get sick or injured, well again, it will be just like before modern medicine existed. Mankind has lived longer without than with. If you're near a city, having a pharmacy to break into for a supply of penicillin would greatly help.

    Grabbing a generator for electricity would be nice, but gasoline goes bad over time. You'd eventually run out of usable gasoline, maybe in as little as 6 months.

    Unmaintained dams would be a bigger concern for me than failing nuclear power plants. There are many dams around the US just for flood control. One local river is only 750ft wide, but before flood control, the floods were 7 miles wide. The Mississippi River flood of 1927 put 27,000 square miles of land under 30ft of water.

    The real question is: if you were truly the last person alive on the planet, how long would you want to survive? When do you think isolation psychosis would kick in for you? The species ends with you, no matter what.
     
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  3. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    duplicate post please delete.
     
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Satellites won't degrade very much for years so that you could make the trip very easily. Solar power or generator on ship would keep you up and running.
     
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  7. cosmictotem Registered Senior Member

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    So I wonder what the threat of nuclear meltdown means for The Walking Dead?
    Even with GPS, I have zero knowledge of ocean weather patterns, how to guide a ship on the high seas, what to avoid, what to do just on a general minute by minute basis. I don't even know how to maintain a boat. Based on my own knowledge, I wouldn't risk it and stick to land.
     
  8. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Not a very big deal. Most plants will shut themselves down. If they are powered during the few days it takes to get to cold shutdown, then once they lose power, they simply become inert. If they lose power before that, the core sustains damage and/or melts, but in general not much radiation will be released. (Look at Fukushima; three meltdowns in the most densely populated country on Earth, no fatalities.)
     
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  9. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Then it would be better to remain on land since you have no knowledge of vessel operations.
     
  10. Amar Nath Reu Be your own guru Registered Senior Member

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    Has the question been clarified? Last human, OK. But whether the last animal? Even dogs may turn out to be as bad as a lion, if there are not enough people around to restrain them. The last person on Earth will die of loneliness. Humans need a society.
     
  11. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    How then did the very first human ever make it since they never had a society to be with other than the animals they encountered?
     
  12. Amar Nath Reu Be your own guru Registered Senior Member

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    Humans and even their ancestors always had society, not just the Neanderthals, but even those who presently constitute Chimps, Apes, and Orangutans.
     
  13. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    My question was that when the very first human appeared on Earth there was NO others around so how did he/ she survive?
     
  14. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Orangutans should not be included in that list. They are much more solitary than the other Great Apes: humans, the two species of gorilla and the two species of chimpanzee. While orangutans are not as solitary as many predatory mammals such as tigers and wolverines and generally tolerate the presence of other individuals in their territory, they do not form tight, permanent, cooperative social groups like wolves and hyenas--not to mention gorillas, chimpanzees and humans.

    And btw, chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and humans are apes. Specifically, we comprise the clade of Great Apes. The Lesser Apes include the various species of gibbons.
     
  15. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    There never was a "very first human".
     
  16. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Then when 2 humans were first here there was no society.
     
  17. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    There never were "2 humans". Humans have always been a population and always a society. They evolved from a population of hominids which was a society and who evolved from a population of great apes which was a society.
     
  18. Amar Nath Reu Be your own guru Registered Senior Member

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    Oh, OT or like. You do not believe in evolution?
     
  19. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    There was no first human, just a gradual change from the previous version of human.
     
  20. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    I know how to make a compass from a pin and a bowl of water.
     
  21. Captain Kremmen All aboard, me Hearties! Valued Senior Member

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    What about in the daytime?
     
  22. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    So during the evolution the things that lived here were in societies? I thought they were in pacts, herds or groups for survival.
     
  23. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I can use a sextant, a reliable watch and navigation tables to know where I am and to plot a course where I'm going. It doesn't take long to learn how to do this.
     

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