Assume the internet as it exists right now keeps running idefinitely, and both survivors speak English. Where could they go to confirm they’re not the only living human worldwide and establish contact with each other?
Youtube does not have a search function for the latest videos anymore, but if I am the only user who keeps uploading, will I get to the front page eventually?
How about Twitter? It’s immediately searchable, but I guess anything a single actual person types in will be drowned out by the numerous bots.
Usenet would work insofar as a human poster is easily identifyable, but will two random people find out about that on their own? Same applies for smaller interactive websites such as the SDMB.
Something offline perhaps? Satellite radio? Any other ideas?
Easy. Just find a deck of cards somewhere and start playing solitaire. The other person will eventually come along to tell you play the black ten on the red jack.
Too much noise on FB for that to be found, I guess.
Another viable way could be Wikipedia. However, changes to the front page and new articles must be reviewed by a senior member before they become visible to the general public. You could try the discussion page or one of the featured articles, but again, the other person must have the same idea.
If you’re the female survivor just do a “boobies” psst, upload a nude photo of yourself. Evenly the line surviving male will find it. I mean, the world over, the internet is the only thing left, I suspect the line male will spend the majority of his time watching and searching for porn.
So the spam bots will be looking for legitimate messages on facebook, in order to guage popular trends /memes/ideas… There being only one…
Then the spam will be
"The best 9 ways to ask - Am I the last person on earth ? "
List yourself on eBay in every category, using lots of keywords - with nobody left to report your listings as inappopriate, they should still be there after all the others naturally end.
That’s assuming the other person thinks to look there - but that’s the problem with anything
Sorry to rain on the parade,OP, but if there were only two people left on the planet, the odds are great that one would either live in an area where Internet access was rare or even non-existent (North Sentinel Island for example)
Assuming everything keeps running as before, getting to a global TV network might do it—go to CNN headquarters, push the mummy out of the anchor’s chair, and put up a sign with “MY NAME IS (X), I AM STILL ALIVE. IS ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE? I’M AT (ADDRESS)” in front of the camera, repeating as necessary with as many tv studios as practical.
If at least one of the survivors is in North America, activating the national Emergency Alert System—if any TVs or radios have just been left on by the (I’m assuming abruptyl) dead population, they might be passively overheard by the other survivor even if they’re not actively checking broadcasts themselves. (I can’t guess on how far outside the US this would be noticed—it might be LESS effective than propping up “CALL ME” signs in front of cameras at any big networks that broadcast internationally.)
Personnaly, I would post comments/change wikipedia pages, etc… on everything related to being the last person on earth (like movies, for instance). Also on ressources that a last survivor might want to use, like survivalist sites. Also on the last posts of every major site (I would comment the last articles posted on yahoo news, for instance).
A lot of offers get automatically re-listed – probably too many to see mine.
There’s some sort of internet terminal everywhere, and you’re not required to stay in your physical location. Just grab an abandoned car and drive to an area with dense coverage.
If they’re both hams, they’ll find each other even without the Internet. It’s not hard to make a simple Morse code transmitter which can be heard around the globe, nor to make a receiver that will pick it up. Even if they weren’t hams to start with, the information on how to do this could be found in any library, and the necessary equipment wouldn’t be too hard to come by, either.
