# Dope Members Alone **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 28, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121 "2010-11-28T00:56:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/41 "2010-11-28T07:24:26Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Or women who want children. Or women who want to be with men. Or real women for that matter. > > You all can count me out of your post-apocalypse party; as soon as the last insulin vials expire beyond effectiveness, I’m dead (please, no deafening me with cheering), and since dying by uncontrolled, ramping high blood sugar is excruciating…well, I don’t need to draw a picture now, do I? > > I’ll try to do something good and worthwhile before that happens; I know a little something about this and that, and I have a lot of cool and useful tools and things. At that point, I’d hope that people who otherwise didn’t want to have children would procreate to at least continue the human race. Then again, we do have a good number of nihilists on the board. Then again, I’ve often felt that if all Dopers got together, it wouldn’t be a pretty sight. We have some of the most argumentative people, and a lot of people who seem unwilling to back down from a fight. Like the above, I’d hope that the situation would overcome the animosity ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/42 "2010-11-28T07:34:33Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > How many veterans are there here especially physically fit ones? Currently active duty soldiers? I’m wondering why this is important to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/43 "2010-11-28T07:38:47Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Rapture style. Only their physical bodies disappear. > > So would you purge **FriarTed** , **kanicbird** , and myself? If the choice were mine, you’d need to change your ways and your attitude post haste. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/44 "2010-11-28T07:40:53Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Please. Dopertopia would fail on day 10, if not sooner. You and the rest of your gang of fiscal liberals would tie anchors around the feet of the few productive people here, making it impossible to create an actual society. Me and those like me would probably be able to carry you guys for a little while, but your overwhelming numbers would bring us down in the long run. Okay, that’s it. You’re out. ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/45 "2010-11-28T09:34:29Z")
There’s a small crew of Santa Barbara Dopers who would make it, although I think we are all men. So we might need to do a little convoy to a more populated area _Watership Down_ style to find some women. On the other hand, I think it would be a lot better if you all would just come on down here. The weather is much much nicer than, well, more or less everywhere. While I believe the Doper population can be distinguished from the typical American population both because of the kind of American people that are more attracted to this board as well as the substantial international presence, I do get the feeling that if you included everyone who has a non-banned account here, including guests, super-lurkers, one-time registers, and people who tend to restrict themselves to, say, MPSIMS or Cafe Society, then you would end up finding a more representative sample of American society politically and religiously then some people in this thread would hope for. One would assume that these people would take on a more influential role in post-apocalypse society than they have in this board. I feel bad for that one old poster from Vietnam. He’d have to get to Thailand to find someone, wouldn’t he? We need to send out a boat to round up isolated people post-haste. In that vein, I’d be curious to know who the most geographically isolated Doper is. Do we have anyone in Central Asia? ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/46 "2010-11-28T10:47:43Z")
I’m going to need a bigger bunk! ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/47 "2010-11-28T11:53:06Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > Okay, that’s it. You’re out. But we need someone to count the beans. It’s a crap job, but if we don’t give it to someone, how are we going to create a perfect system of food redistribution? ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/48 "2010-11-28T13:42:01Z")
> [@ñañi](#): > > There’s a small crew of Santa Barbara Dopers who would make it, although I think we are all men. So we might need to do a little convoy to a more populated area Watership Down style to find some women. They’ll think you guys are really nice, but they;ll just want to be friends. Even if the dopers who actually live in close proximity to each other were able to leave their parents basements before they ran out of Hot Pockets and starved, they would need to actually interact with another human. And that’s a pretty big “if”. A disproportionate number of them will only have computer skills and other skills useless in a post-apocalypse world. Essentially rendering them just as unemployable as in the pre-apocalypse world. Nothing will get done as society tries to organize into co-ops and weird organizational structures that are unable to assign any sort of responsibility or distribute resources. Any time someone actually does find something to each, you all try to split it a thousand ways. Eventually you will kill each other off as you go to war with rival tribes over the minutiae of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/49 "2010-11-28T13:58:45Z")
I’m surprised we’ve got this far without talking hard numbers. As of right now, there are 95,317 total members of the SDMB. That’s counting regular posters, people who used to be regular posters and have left, lurkers and people who registered and then never typed [straightdope.com](http://straightdope.com) into their browser ever again. The board also lists 6,581 “Active Members,” which requires one log in during a set period of time (I’m guessing within the last 30 days). With nearly 100,000 members, we could not only restart human society, but it would probably be pretty easy. Once people start coming together (and jokes about losers with no social skills aside, this would happen), 100,000 people would provide enough brain power and braun to start putting the pieces back together. And as others have mentioned, there would be enough canned goods, cereal, crackers and other non-perishables to last us decades. Plenty of time to put together some kind of farming community/hunting group. Also, we’d finally find out who the celebrity members of the Dope are. We even have one bona-fide expert in post-apocalypse scenarios in S.M. Stirling. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/50 "2010-11-28T15:16:23Z")
Could we make Godwin’s and Gaudere’s Laws into actual laws? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/51 "2010-11-28T18:30:35Z")
With global population reduced to 100,000, oil supplies would become relatively infinite. We could go back to designing huge 5mpg Cadillacs and treat fuel as if it were air- basically we could all behave the way people who claim to be fiscal conservatives behave now! I’m probably one of the fitter dopers, so I’d have to wrest **Nzinga** from whoever thinks they can keep her. Gaarrrr! _beats chest_ We might have to create a new philosophy/science -grounded religion to deal with circumstances. Seriously, if there is a rapture that takes everyone _but_ dopers, what are the implications?!? Overall I think we’d have one helluva time getting along. At least pot would be legal. Somebody take down **elucidator** ’s number. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/52 "2010-11-28T19:30:58Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > There aren’t enough fiscal conservatives here for straight dope members to create a functioning society. Funnily enough, with your background, I think you’d probably be a very good choice for being in charge of taxation. Cecil’s Tax Collector? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate irony for you? ---
**Author:** ![acetylene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@acetylene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acetylene)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/53 "2010-11-28T19:48:44Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I’m probably one of the fitter dopers, so I’d have to wrest **Nzinga** from whoever thinks they can keep her. Gaarrrr! _beats chest_ I’m fit too, plus I’m a big fella. 6’2" 230 lbs. Plus I’m a former Army Sergeant. Plus I called dibs. Dibs is legally binding in all 50 states. You know, kinda like calling shotgun. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121/54 "2010-11-28T21:08:13Z")
I let this run for a few hours on the off chance that a debate, (or at least a discussion), would break out, but I see no reason to let a handful of snide snipers force me to keep watch for personal attacks with no actual discussion taking place. I realize that a couple of you made the effort, but as currently constituted, this thread will never make it. Closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dope-members-alone/562121.md?page=2)