So you wake up one morning and everyone else in your city/state/country has been zapped away by aliens. How long would you be able to survive.Everything else is intact,so you’ve got supermarkets and things. I don’t know how long power would last without anyone to monitor the stations and keep the computers going? What do you get up to and how would it affect you physically and mentally?
I’d probably survive as long as I wanted to. I’d get a gasoline powered pump (and a hand cranked one), fill it up while the power was still working so I could get gas after the power goes out. I’d go to the nearest dealership and pick up a truck, then go get a couple of hunting rifles and ammunition.
Then I’d go looking for another survivor. I’d figure if I survived, then someone else may have. If no one else did… then I’d keep looking until I died.
It’s not fair… It’s just not fair.
Seriously, it would be pretty easy to survive if you can keep yourself from getting sick. Given that there would be nobody to stop you, you could grab anything you needed to survive and live as long as you don’t need something like surgery or any other medical procedure you can’t do on your own.
It’s a strangely attractive prospect. It’s time I had some time alone.
The first thing I’d do is go to GQ and grin.
There’d be NO THREADS TO MOVE. 
Let’s put this one over in IMHO, as that’s what this is about.
samclem GQ moderator
Only in my country? Why, then I’d simply set up the Priceguy Nation and start diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.
Everyone in the world? I’d get myself a nice dog, a couple of rifles and ammo, a motorbike, a siphon, a lot of books and canned food. It would take decades before I got bored.
In addition to truck or SUV, guns/ammo, food, matches, solar powered lights etc. I would look for meds and supplies such as antibiotics. I would also do a ‘threat assessment’ for the lack of better words to make sure that I don’t have to remain hidden and that I could safely send out messages broadband whatever. Not sure how I would do that, so I would look for a survival skills book. Maybe the internet would be up but probably not for too long. I would also check SDMB to see if there were folks online wondering what the hell was happening.
I would try to hold my emotions together, but I am not sure that this would be possible.
I would assume that someone had somehow killed everyone in the ABO blood group a la Enterprise, and go looking for my non-ABO blood group relatives.
If I were truly the last person alive, I’d live as long as the canned food and books held out, and then I’d die.
I’d make damn sure I don’t break my eyeglasses.
I’d probably go the Cadbury factory and be very happy for a few months. Mmmmm chocolate.
After that, I’d probably get quite bored. What can I say? I’m a people person.
Ponders Gemma and chocolate together…Mmm 
Blame Bush. :rolleyes:
Same here. I could do it no problem, if my SO survived as we spend nearly all of our spare time in each other’s prescence anyway, and we could entertain ourselves.
But no one…I like being alone, but I don’t particularly like being lonely. And that would be desolate.
If everyone else in the world was gone, I’d survive for a while; if it was a Mad Max-type scenario, where there were bands of survivors, one of them would probably snuff me pretty quickly unless I managed to team up with someone.
Biggest problems would be:
–Illness; a dental problem or even a hangnail could rapidly turn into life-threatening septicemia(sp?)
–Wild animals (actually, reverted domestic dogs in my particular case)
Assuming there really were no other humans, my plan would be (perhaps not in this order):
Stock up hugely on:
-antibiotics and powerful pain killers/opiates etc.
-vegetable seeds
-preserved foodstuffs
-ammunition and some guns (yes, I live in the UK, but there is a hunting gun shop in the high street of the village where I live)
-petrochemicals
Actions:
-Find a safe base (maybe an island, perhaps Brownsea Island - I can at least eradicate any wild dogs there)
-Release as many as possible of chickens, sheep, goats, cows, horses etc from their paddocks etc - most of them will probably perish due to predation etc, but there’s a chance that naturalised populations might establish themselves (horses are already naturalised near here, so if all else fails, I’ll be eating horsemeat (as well as venison, rabbit, pheasant etc)
I would not attempt to depend on canned food, except to tide me over into self-sufficiency. If I developed a serious medical condition, I’d probably either take an overdose of morphine, or just keep dosing myself up with it until the illness offed me anyway.
Swear and reload the saved game.
Why can’t it be me -and- Johnny Depp?? Or Steven Tyler. Or, oooh, ooh, Kevin Bacon! (I’m sure I could substitute many more, but I bet the idea of how I’d spend my last days has become quite clear.) 
Besides that, I’d go to Disneyland, then every other cool theme park in America. Eat copious amounts of pre-prepared gourmet food and hunt down any cool toys that I’d always wished I’d had.
Lastly, I’d go hang out in some rich person’s estate (wonder if Neverland would be a good option?) until I, hopefully, died in my sleep in a bazillion dollar bed with those extra soft comfy expensive pillows and cover.
Ah, heaven.
Having spent a fair amount of time camping with no people for miles around, I would just see to it that I had food for every day and a means of staying warm and dry by night. Eventually I would head south so that winters would be less of a concern. No need to haul a lot of stuff with me assuming that supermarkets and such were still intact, so I’d spend a lot of time exploring and foraging.
After a couple of months I’d be talking to myself A LOT, but I wouldn’t have to worry about boring anyone else.
When I was a kid, this was my favourite daydream.
I think first of all, I’d steal cars and drive all over the place. Everywhere I went, I’d go into people’s personal stuff and snoop til I got bored. I would go everywhere I can’t go now like to FBI headquarters and things. Look around, see who killed JFK, etc.
I’d go up in the CN tower and throw things off, then go back down and see what I’d squished. Try to break a minivan with a penny, etc.
I would also build/destroy other things for my own entertainment. Like building towers of speakers and then seeing how loud it can go before it falls down, throwing minivans full of $500 jars of Creme de la Mer face cream off bridges, etc. I would probably go to Holt Renfrews and get some all cashmere wardrobes.
I think it would follow the pattern of Kevin in Home Alone. Eventually I would be tired of mayhem. All I know is that by then I would be so de-socialized that I’d be looking like some kind of fashion don’t running around in designer sunglasses with a big fur jacket with all-in one pjs on underneath and hiking boots. And I would be smoking a lot of different items in a big long cigarette holder just for added nobody-can-stop-me appeal. I’d be smoking BIG STINKY CIGARS plus I’d be rolling my own from everyone’s stashes. Normally I do not smoke pot but what the hell. I quit smoking this year but FUCK THAT if there aren’t going to be any people around. Oh and another thing you can fuck? Bathing. Forget about that. I need my animal companions to be able to find me from far away. I think a descent into alcoholism is in order as well. Heroin? Good idea don’t mind if I do! Why live with headache pain?
Also, being that I will now be the world’s greatest living singer, I will definitely be doing a lot of it.
I’d have lots of pets. I would need them to protect me from all the abandoned pets. I think I would also try to sail a big boat out to sea and see if I could sail around the whole world. I would probably die trying to do something like that. I would have to learn to do it from books and of course, it’s not smart to try to go to Paris on your first voyage at sea. However, by then I think I would not value my life the same way I do now. I’m pretty sure over time I would be doing more and more lofty and insane activities until finally I flew too close to the sun, so to speak, and did myself in.
Is my dog still there? My cats? That would be something of a buffer.
I suspect that I’d take to wandering, but leaving a trail of messages behind me. The messages would probably evolve into odd environmental art the longer I spent alone. I’m guessing that I’d work a widening circle, coming back to my home repeatedly, until I got my processes down. Then I’d spiral out.
The dog would love it.
One word: RealDolls.
After appropriate shelter and food were procured, I’d probably spend several days watching DVDs that I’ve always wanted to watch, but never had the time. I figure electronics would ‘break’, whereas any books in librarys would outlast me, so I’d start there. Then I’d do a lot of reading. But I’d probably get bored after several weeks of that, so I’d have to entertain myself in other ways. Perhaps I’d drive a large truck to different parts of the country collecting wax figures from wax museums, and then have a life-sized ‘action figure’ battle with them in a small western city. Then maybe I’d collect several gasoline tankers, spell out something like “Petelin is the smartest, best looking man on earth” (which would technically be true at this point) in 100 foot letters on the side of a mountain, and then light them on fire. Or maybe I’d make a game out of bouncing a basketball…see how many times I could bounce in in one day, and then try to break that record the next day. Or maybe I’d take up smoking cigars, just so I could light each one with a $100 bill (which now has no value).
I’ll bet I could keep myself entertained for a little while. But I’d probably have to get a dog for companionship.