# All but two people on Earth die. Will they find each other? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2014, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231 "2014-04-03T05:11:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/21 "2014-04-03T13:52:00Z")
They managed it in _The Purple Cloud_, but it took the hero around two decades. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/22 "2014-04-03T14:04:45Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > 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. > > . Really? Available “everywhere?” Sooo…places like the Guiana Highlands, the middle of the Sahara Desert, The Canadian Arctic, most of the Kamchtka Peninsula and remote islands ALL have Internet access? You must not travel very much. There are places even in the US where Internet access isn’t common. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/23 "2014-04-03T14:09:05Z")
Just start masturbating. Someone’s bound to walk in. > [@nevadaexile](#): > > 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) The odds of the last person on earth living on North Sentinel Island are essentially nil. Somewhere with poor Internet access, maybe, but even the poorest central African states have Internet cafes now. Now that I think about it, the best strategy might be to travel to the communications room in the White House, and start sending out feeds. Then travel to regional capitals and visit the news broadcasters and switch to your WH feed. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/24 "2014-04-03T14:16:22Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > 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. We’re talking internet though. I suggest finding BuzzFeed HQ and doing a “These Eleven Bears Are Sad That I’m Possibly The Last Person On Earth” followed up by “Thirty Things You’d Only Remember If You Lived On Pre-Apocalypse Earth” article. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/25 "2014-04-03T14:21:32Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > We’re talking internet though. I suggest finding BuzzFeed HQ and doing a “These Eleven Bears Are Sad That I’m Possibly The Last Person On Earth” followed up by “Thirty Things You’d Only Remember If You Lived On Pre-Apocalypse Earth” article. I like that, along with the “Which Person On Earth Are You?” quiz with only two questions. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/26 "2014-04-03T14:25:09Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Really? > Available “everywhere?” > > Sooo…places like the Guiana Highlands, the middle of the Sahara Desert, The Canadian Arctic, most of the Kamchtka Peninsula and remote islands ALL have Internet access? You must not travel very much. > > There are places even in the US where Internet access isn’t common. Hell, with no one left to fuel, maintain, regulate, reset any of the power and communication systems, you would probably have all of 3 days before it all shuts down. Travel someplace warm, collect weapons, ammo, tools, canned food, raid libraries for survival books and set up a hip Swiss Family Robinson tree house somewhere. Then start looking for generators, gasoline, coal, etc to restart porn-laden laptops found where the missing men left them and then start looking for the other remaining person. Priorities people. Gotta have a killer pad to bring the last woman on Earth home to. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/27 "2014-04-03T14:25:14Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Just start masturbating. Someone’s bound to walk in. > > The odds of the last person on earth living on North Sentinel Island are essentially nil. Somewhere with poor Internet access, maybe, but even the poorest central African states have Internet cafes now. > > . "Nil?’ How so? After all there are no targets in the Andaman Sea so there would little reason for a nuclear device to strike the area. Also the people there are isolated from modern society anyway making it almost impossible them to affected by a pandemic. If there were going to be survivors anywhere, it would on an isolated island or in an isolated region of Earth. Sooo…why wouldn’t there be people there again? And there are many areas in Africa which don’t have Internet access. You are aware that most people still get their news either from radio or word of mouth, correct? Maybe you aren’t, as you seem to be somewhat Internet-focused yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/28 "2014-04-03T14:33:14Z")
If there are only two survivors, then whatever catastrophe killed us off obviously _reached_ the Andaman Islands (and everywhere else.) So the survivors are likely to be in densely populated areas. Anyway, you obviously didn’t read the post you responded to. Just because most people do not have Internet access in their homes, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t find a place to access the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/29 "2014-04-03T16:16:08Z")
With only two survivors, the probability of one of those survivors being on any particular point on the earth’s surface is essentially zero. Therefore, they should work on meeting up on the moon. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/30 "2014-04-03T16:48:40Z")
is it easy to get a hold of those spam bots for your own use? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/31 "2014-04-03T17:00:24Z")
If both of them have ever been to the SC State Fair, they’ll know what to do: meet at [the rocket](https://www.scstatefair.org/fair/special-attractions/the-rocket.php). ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/32 "2014-04-03T17:16:36Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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. That’s all very well, but until just now, I didn’t know that, so the idea would not even have occurred to me. I suppose after a couple of months dedicated to researching all possible means of communication, I may have stumbled upon it. I also feel I must apologise to the OP - I opened this thinking it was a silly question, actually it’s rather interesting, as are the responses! My idea - set up a large number of Yahoo/Hotmail/Gmail accounts called “lastpersononearth” (I daresay hundreds of these already exist, but choose the next number suggested), and then e-mail all the ones that were already taken. If the other person has the same idea, you will make contact. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/33 "2014-04-03T17:31:43Z")
I find it amusing that so many of these involve using first world Internet technologies. I’d bet fewer than one person in 20 on this planet has a twitter account, about the same for Facebook, and basically nobody for the lesser services. (Although they outnumber the Ham Radio folks about a million to one). Most folks on the planet go about their day with at best a passing acknowledgement of the _existence_ of the Internet, and probably half of them (particularly children in poor nations and the elderly everywhere) wouldn’t know how to use most of these services. You might get lucky and have your two survivors use the same service regularly, but faced with day-to-day survival in a world with nobody else around, I doubt people are going to spend that time signing up for and trying out hashtags. Assuming random distribution, I’m going to claim the answer to the OP is “no.” Or rather, a vanishingly small likelihood: maybe a tenth of a percent chance. If “find” requires that they actually be in the same place and say, shake hands, the odds go way down. I’m in the US – I’m having trouble imagining a scenario in which I could get to Europe or Africa without needing any other people: I can’t fly a plane or run a large, ocean-going vessel, nor be able to navigate even the Atlantic in it successfully. And that’s assuming I _knew_ the other person was there. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/34 "2014-04-03T17:32:56Z")
There are only two people left? So who cares? Not me unless I’m one of them and the other is a hot chick who has all of a sudden taken a hankering to old, chubby, balding middle aged guys. :dubious: If not, maybe I’ll show up in a red Ferrari and see if that impresses her. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/35 "2014-04-03T17:38:12Z")
Can you rig google searches so that your ad comes up for anything to do with survival? ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/36 "2014-04-03T18:21:50Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Most folks on the planet go about their day with at best a passing acknowledgement of the _existence_ of the Internet, and probably half of them (particularly children in poor nations and the elderly everywhere) wouldn’t know how to use most of these services. I give you the children, so let’s further assume a “person” to be reasonably mature for the purpose of this thread. I do believe, however, that a random third-world resident is well aware of computer networks, just that they aren’t in a financial situation to use such things regularly. In a scenario where all items of daily need are just up for grabs, they will start contemplating such a question rather soon. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/37 "2014-04-03T18:24:38Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > Can you rig google searches so that your ad comes up for anything to do with survival? Technically, sure. Or break into the company’s office and edit their homepage. The question is if a technologically inexperienced person can learn how to do that on their own without totally breaking the website in the process. ---
**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/38 "2014-04-03T18:57:39Z")
I hope this doesn’t go too much against the spirit of the question, but if there’s only two people left on Earth, what’s keeping the Internet and its required infrastructure running? In _The Purple Cloud_ Claverhouse mentioned, the author had to come up with a science-fiction compressed-air power source that a single person could operate to explain how the hero could, without help, navigate a ship and train all over the ruins of civilization. Even back in 1901, the “how does stuff keep running with only one guy left to maintain it?” question was vexing. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/39 "2014-04-03T18:59:58Z")
Yeah, I’m not seeing anything like a web based search being at all viable. Granted, you won the lottery by nature of just being alive. But you’re not likely to hit another lottery prize immediately after. The technology (everything from general electrical service to all the intricacies that make up the World Wide Web) will degrade rapidly without maintenance. Even if coverage was actually world wide initially, which of course it is not, holes will appear in coverage like Swiss cheese, and expand exponentially as components overheat, lose power, require re-boot, or whatever. The chances of you being someplace where service continues, and the other person similarly being so situated, is small to begin with and decreases rapidly. Plus, your (well, both of your) web searches / notifications require quite a lot of time sitting around manipulating a keyboard. I guess, like Mom’s basement, you could lay in a stock of Doritos and canned spaghetti and just stick it out. But I’m not sure how long the sanitary arrangements will last. Sooner rather than later you’ll be moving to somewhere cleaner, and probably warmer too unless you’re already near the equator. If you were a pilot, you might find yourself an old sky writer biplane and just start writing something. Any old thing, like lines and loops will demonstrate that there’s another person. I’d expect anybody who saw it to immediately start looking for an airport, since that’s where you would have to land. Spray paint a big “!” on a building and leave a note. “Stay here. I’ll fly back in a few weeks or months.” Then fly off a hundred miles to another airport and do it again. You could cover an awful lot of ground, given time. And you’d have nothing else but time. Given careful attention to weather you could hop continents and make your search nearly worldwide. Heck, if I was really the last man, and had no other prospects, I might try to learn to fly an airplane. The best simulators in the world would be available, free even, and I could trial-and-error for weeks or months at a time before I attempted a real flight. What would I have to lose? ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231/40 "2014-04-03T19:08:55Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > If there are only two survivors, then whatever catastrophe killed us off obviously _reached_ the Andaman Islands (and everywhere else.) So the survivors are likely to be in densely populated areas. Anyway, you obviously didn’t read the post you responded to. Just because most people do not have Internet access in their homes, it doesn’t mean they couldn’t find a place to access the Internet. Umm…if the survivors were in “densely populated areas” that means that there would be hundreds of thousands to tens of millions dead around them.It’s doubtful that Web surfing would be “top of mind” if something like that occurred. Anyway…not to threadshit…but any disaster which only left two people could leave people at any age range from infants to centenarians, making use of the Internet irrelevant. Or it could leave a comatose person and a blind person. Or it could leave a person at sea and a person deep in a mine. Soooo…again…the chances of two people not together finding one another even on the same continent would be so remote as to be impossible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-but-two-people-on-earth-die-will-they-find-each-other/685231.md?page=3)