The End is Near! What would you do?

[hawaii kid]

For the sake of stimulating some new topics at the Water Cooler (which is all en vogue these days) I offer up this one:

Some sort of global cataclysm has just taken place, an asteroid hits in the Atlantic Ocean or something like that, and civilized society is breaking down due to 1/2 the world's population being wiped out instantly. Would you try to ally with a group or go relatively solo. Which group and why? I hear the Mormons are pretty squared away and ready for something like this...

I know how to live off the land and the natural resources here are phenominal so I think I'd stay here and try to defend what I could get my hands on.


Your Turn.

[KShan5[PrFC]]

Anarchy baby, the only way to go. lol, I do though think anarchy could work to a certain extent. But I guess I would just centralize around my family and Church. Dunno about much else.

[MyrddinsPrecint]

i have friends who are good at the survivalist thang... i'd find them... and hang out with them... not a large group of them, maybe 10ish... it would work out well...

[Event Horizon]

I don't believe civilized society would break down. Disasters have always plagued mankind and I think we have adapted to existing with such things. Countries are always willing to lend a hand to others during such crisis. So, would it be everyone for themselves? Anarchy may rule, but only for a brief time. In answer to your question, I don't know. It would make for a good sociology paper.

[whtouche]

If an asteroid or something hit the atlantic ocean or something similar, I think I'd be first in line to get myself wiped out.

It's like asking your commanding officer what to do if you step on a landmine.
"Procedure dictates you jump 100 feet in the air and scatter yourself over a large area."

[hawaii kid]

whtouche - Now you know why it's hitting the Atlantic instead of the Pacific! Having said that, I doubt if my little island would be spared anyway. All the population here is at sea level and would probably be wiped out on one of the backlashes from the global wave that would develop (I'm assuming all this would happen but haven't studied it.)

O.K. Let's change it then. Let assume that the entire population of the planet dies off except the posters on this board! Including the occasional troll.

Who would you want to hang with to ensure survival?

(Thinks to self ~maybe this should be in fantasy land~ )

[Inquartata]

This used to be a much more interesting idea to consider. The number of after-the-holocaust books was testimony to that. Today, there would be no long-term survivors, because without human monitoring and control the more than 400 power-generating nuclear reactors in use around the world ( to say nothing of the research ones and all the ones powering warships and submarines ) the radioactivity released by the melt-downs would probably kill off most life within a few years....

[Jupiter]

What a thought! Let's see. Wait for the first panics to subside. If you make it through that, head for the hills, but make sure you bring your ammo-they'll be wild dogs in them their hills. Then I suppose we'd all form communities again. But the interim would be very difficult. How about going out to sea in a houseboat and just avoid having to deal with wayfarers? Human nature being what it is, would be a difficult thing indeed to live through a normal life span. No electricity, running water, cetainly no gas, oil, I think I would try to bury the dead or start cremations and formulate some sort of prayers for those who have passed. That's for the very beginnings.

[thyme_daniels]

i would stick with my family, but we could make it by ourselves. in this situation, assuming the atlantic returns to normal and the world is the same, except without half of its population, we would go out and sail on the ocean.

we could go island jumping with our water purifier and canned food and eat fish. just think! if society breaks down, it would be freedom, in a sense! no more attachment to cell phones, tv, the internet. sure, we would miss it for a little bit, but the world would rediscover the joy of a good book, playing outside and the company of others. so perhaps i would also put myself into a group. though i feel sorry for the 3 billion (is the population of the world 6 billion? sorry if this is wrong) who were wiped out.

how interesting though. what a good question hawaii kid.

btw, sorry if someone already said this

[hawaii kid]

SNIP from earlier post from Hawaii Kid/Kodiak Kid
"O.K. Let's change it then. Let assume that the entire population of the planet dies off except the posters on this board! Including the occasional troll.

Who would you want to hang with to ensure survival?

(Thinks to self ~maybe this should be in fantasy land~ ) "


My thoughts turned toward re-populating the planet once the basics of Food Water Shelter were looked after...

Ever read Lord of the Flies by William Golding?
Or seen Dr. Strangelove?

Hadn't thought about all the nuclear reactors spinning out of control. That would make a lot of decisions pretty academic, as is this entire thread. I don't usually waste my time on "what if" questions much but was looking for something fun that didn't go too far off into fantasy land.

We have our own hydro electric plant here (not on the main grid)so we might be able to keep the power on until maintenance got away from us. We'd have to forego milk and most dairy products (all imported) but the wild animal population would keep us in protien. Hmmm, anybody ever try to milk a deer?

I think our biggest problem would be pirates. There's too many natural ports to try to defend them all.

[Inquartata]

Read Nevil Shute's "On the Beach". That's the future, given any quick, drastic catastrophe which seriously depopulates the earth. Just sit and wait for the radiation sickness, folks.

Our technology has gone too far to simply go quiescent without human hands at the switches. And it can't just be turned off by a few insightful survivors, either.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but----th-th-that's all, folks.

[Indy4ever]

Oh come on people, lets be realistic. I would find the nearest intact off licence (liqour store) and have some fun. Hell, I'd roll a spliff or two and sodomise my cousin (with her permission of course). And don't deny it - you would too. I'd stop worrying about trying to extend my life on an inhospitable shell of a planet with wild dogs in them hills, or whatever that other guy was saying. Just have some fun and wait for the end, content that I would not be opposed with a society with prisons and jailers all too happy to put me on suicide watch.

[Marcos]

Just look at the state Iraq and Afghanistan are now in and you get a good idea how ordinary people deal with a breakdown in civilisation...

...brief anarchy followed by like-minded people grouping together for mutual security / interests

[Marcos]

but personnaly I'd grab some compost and some greenfly killer...tend the roses, and mow the lawn

I grew up in Britain after all.

[hawaii kid]

Oh come on people, lets be realistic. I would find the nearest intact off licence (liqour store) and have some fun. Hell, I'd roll a spliff or two and sodomise my cousin (with her permission of course). And don't deny it - you would too. I'd stop worrying about trying to extend my life on an inhospitable shell of a planet with wild dogs in them hills, or whatever that other guy was saying. Just have some fun and wait for the end, content that I would not be opposed with a society with prisons and jailers all too happy to put me on suicide watch.



And I'm sure a lot of your peers would feel the same way with the possible exception of asking permission...

I don't think a liquor store is where I'd want to spend my last conscious moments. Especially one being over run by anarchy minded mobs trying to get in their last licks at an indifferent world.

But then I've got lots of better options than that so it's easy to make light of your limited choices.
As Marie Antoinette supposedly said "Let them eat cake!"

[Indy4ever]

Cake? f**k that, where's the vodka???????????

[retardedspleen]

i would head for the highest most remote ground, bring pleanty of weapons (this is to kill of animals and people who have gone crazy due to panic) bring friends, that would be my group, but no more than 10, any more than that and your starting a small community. i think Anarchy would take over the remaining population for quite some time, and eventuly turn into some form of political power.


it would be interesting if we could some how actuly put this into motion, just to see how things would work out (not for real, but just to see how things pan out) hypothetical situations are fun


Chris Triplett

[three_hundred_fifty_five]

Originally posted by hawaii kid
..I know how to live off the land and the natural resources here are phenominal so I think I'd stay here and try to defend what I could get my hands on.


Your Turn.

Get a gun, shoot you and take what you have your hands on.

[a517dogg]

sit outside with a sixpack of cold beer and a boombox blasting beastie boys.

[Peach]

Just keep doing what I'm already doing; I remember when the Three Mile Island reactor problem occurred a bunch of people in the Northeast thought the end was coming and did all kinds of things they deeply regretted later . . .