I’m imagining something like “Bojack Horseman”.
It’s much worse than that. No matter how adaptive we are in our new bodies, our agriculture and transportation systems will fail immediately. There will be no food moving into our primary population centers. The green spaces will be stripped of edible material within days or hours. Packs of intelligent hunters will begin wiping out the slower and weaker animals. Billions will die. It will be horrific.
Yeah, good reason to stick with “raven”. I can feed on the leftover parts of the dead, and escape the hunters into the air. 
I’m wondering about genetics.
Do the ex-humans retain their human genes despite their new shapes? If so, can a human-fox and a human-rabbit mate?
If their genetics change, too, then human-fox with fox-fox should be fertile, too. But what does “retain their human intelligence” mean in that case? The offspring are human level? Fox level? Some average in between?
What does it mean in terms of what can eat what? Would panther-me someday end up in court protesting, But how was I supposed to know that he wasn’t just a deer-deer?
Flying omnivores seem well-positioned to escape the cities and survive long-term, yep. Or at least longer-term.
Ravens can talk, too. Poe wasn’t just making that up: Some crows and ravens really do mimic human speech.
And yeah, I thought about the lifespan issue, too. Compared to other mammals, humans live freakishly long. Though birds fare better there.
On thinking about it, the best-case scenario might be if we were all turned into ravens: Dexterous enough that we might be able to get technology going again, and small and omnivorous enough that we might be able to survive until we get to that point.
I doubt the world can feed 8 billion ravens. Maybe another 8 billion ants.
Yes, I’ve heard of real cases of ravens speaking identifiable human words, appropriately, even. But i don’t think they speak very well. I imagine actually holding a conversation would be challenging
Hmm, parrots live a lot longer than ravens. A raven’s total lifespan is about my expected future lifespan.
Just that you still have human-level intelligence and your own mind, personality and memories. Of course if that’s all running on a non-human brain you’d also have the instincts and desires of your new form. Which may cause…problems.
Yes I’m glad I live way out in the countryside, I could hide in the woods until it all blew over then head into town and feast on what’s left of the dead. Sweet.
Then find a nice tod and settle down, it’s all good.
Actually my second choice of species would be Burmese Python because to quote Marge Simpson I just think they’re kind of neat, and if you have to be a non-human it may as well be something really different. I do live in a temperate climate so I hope someone would invent a wrap-around body-warmer or something.
That is an interesting scenario though I admit part of the reason for my OP is simply that I’m curious what new species people would choose to be and why.
Yes good point but ‘One Day as a Fox’ and all that.
That’s what I suspect would happen, total global collapse and then smaller communities and societies would rise from the ashes, we would probably still have technology but at a much lower level.
Agreed, might be a bit awkward to figure out if the other person is a former human or not though.
I figured you become 100% physically your new chosen species, only difference as that your intelligence remains the same, so no hybrids…though that is a fun idea.
And I imagine the children of a post-human fox and an ordinary fox would have the intelligence of the former. That or course raises the question of how long it would be before the entire population of the species is Fox+ of course! Which is an interesting scenario in itself.
And I suspect though intelligent various species would think in ways very different than each other.
And as for diet perhaps former humans would have some sort of recognition signal so we don’t end up eating each other? Then again the psychos would have a field day.
We probably would need some sort of legal system and post-human Police Force!
I still can’t get the hang of the quote system so I may have messed this up, I’d probably be as well off typing with paws.
The more I read the more I stick with my idea of the whale: long life, far away from trouble, eats something nobody will choose to become. Because frankly: what is to stop the homo wolfes from eating the homo sheep and calling it the ultimate form of collaboration? The justice system? With DAs that cannot write, judges that can not reason, lawyers that cannot lie, policemen that cannot pull the trigger, jails whose doors cannot be locked? I prefer to stay as far away as possible from that.
Or, if I must, I would consider choosing the Tyranosaurus as the animal to be. Come get me. Be my meal.
I pick raccoon!
Most species could I think at least draw words or diagrams in patches of mud, sand, or soil.
Of course, by asking your prey to do so, you’ve lost any possible element of surprise in catching them, and will probably go hungry either way – anybody else in this thread read Digger?
But if this question’s being asked in the potential-mating situation, rather than the potential-prey situation, that should be much less of an issue. Anybody who runs frantically away from you is certainly not consenting.
Dibs on Raccoons.
Oh, now you tell me. That explains a lot.
I’m confident enough in the general unimaginative mind of most people that I predict we’d end up with billions of domesticated cats and dogs with zero ability to survive without the existence of human beings.
Feral cats and dogs are a thing, and do fine without humans. Now, there’s not enough prey for a billion of them. But that’s going to be a problem with every animal.
Feral cats and dogs aren’t burdened with human brains and I suspect their primary diet is human garbage.
In the city, maybe. Out here it’s mice and baby rabbits and whatever else they can catch.
But the lifespan of a feral cat is usually short and difficult.
Given human-level intelligence, I’m reasonably certain that a team of cats or dogs would be able to operate some machinery the way it is.