Ok, Lets say everbody on the planet dies except for us Dopers here on the board. Kind of like Stephen King’s “The Stand” style.
How prosperous a life could we lead?
First I guess we’d have to decide what types of professionals we would need to keep us going. I know we have a few doctors on this board so we’re good there.
What about stuff like, some one to run the electrical plant?
Teachers to teach our children? (Doper children get to live BTW)
Mechanics?
Farmers?
What else?
I’m a technician myself, so I guess I could fix everybodies electical appliances. [shrugs]
So what about YOU? What will YOU contribute to the New SDMB World Order?
I’m so hopping we have prostitute Dopers on this board. You know just in case I don’t meet the love of my life
Not much, I’m afraid. I’d have to be somebody’s assistant. I’m bright and a quick learner, so I could do pretty much anything if instructed, but I don’t really have many skills that would help a postapocalyptic society.
I have an encyclopedic knowledge of bad jokes. I could be court jester. I also have some knowledge of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, albeit I doubt I could recognize useful herbs (in their natural state). Beating up animals for their body parts should be no problem, though.
Librarian - sure some might say we’re not necessary, that everything’s online. But remember, in the post-apocalypse, the internet will only exist if we make it exist.
And I know how to find information - so when you need to know how to do stuff, that’s when I come in really useful.
C’moffit. Granted the presence of the necessary skills among the Dopers, what are the odds of getting the necessary cooperation out of them? Hand any two randomly-selected posters a short length of rope, and five’ll get you ten they’ll start hauling in opposite directions before you can say knife. Talk about “herding cats”.
First of all, it seems like half the people on this board have enough trouble getting their own lives together, let alone rebuilding society.
Secondly, I would guess that if we are forced to keep our pre SDMB jobs, we would be too heavily skewed in the tech, academic and white collar sectors and not enough in the agriculture, construction and manufacturing to keep a society functioning properly.
I am a bit of a jack of all trades. I can do wood working, electrical work, electronics, computer programming and building, pneumatic controls, some plumbing and auto repair (but only on older cars). I can maintain and sail boats. I might be able to get a simple marine engine running. I can fix mechanical clocks. I build toys from scraps. I could teach math and history and computers. I could re-learn to weld again quickly. I can shoot a bow and if needed our many hunters could train me with a gun. I learn quickly.
I would be best utilized on the repair, build and warehousing functions.
I have a little knowledge on everything and a large collection of reference books.
Huh. I might actually be able to contribute. I can make the following staples from scratch:
Cheese
Butter
Yogurt
Bread (rotis, etc)
So all those skills would not be lost. I’m a great organizer, it’s what I do at work, so I could help organize the society, and I can usually get my views across without upsetting people (good charisma).
My professional skills wouldn’t be of much use, but I am a better than average liar-to-children and I also have some home winemaking equipment and a fair knowledge of how to use it. Beer would call for a little experimentation and a grain supply; I know roughly what’s meant to happen, but it might take a harvest or two before I really crack it. And Anaamika and I could borrow yeast off each other. Oh, yes, that whole bread thing too.
Piece 'o cake. I’ve spent a lifetime in farming and livestock production. I’m looking through my window at a pasture full of cattle and horses even as we speak, and managed a large hog farm for several years.
…Ew. Sounds gross, doesn’t it?
The only thing I’d need is for someone else to grow the wheat or grain or whatever. I’m not much of a farmer.
I also have a HUGE repository of good stories to tell children. Mostly about Indian culture, but I would think at that point we wouldn’t care. And I’m really good at taking care of children, and to be honest, if you’re going to repopulate the earth, you need all the women you can get, right? We can get by with a few men (lucky guys) but we’ll need lots of different women.
And John Carter, I volunteer to be one of the dancing girls.
Sorry about the duplicate post, but it occurs to me - we wouldn’t need the lawyers at all, would we? Shoot 'em!
And do we keep spouses who are not technically Dopers, since we get to keep children?
