Vacant Earth: What Would You Do?

MetaFilter member Dudley Storey poses a fascinating question:

So you wake up tomorrow morning to find almost everyone on Earth missing. The Internet will continue to work for a few hours: what information could you download to ensure your survival and rebuild civilization?


Mr. Storey has a few suggestions, which you can read at the link. How would you answer the question?

Link -via Super Punch | Image: Random House

Previously: A Monument of Post-Apocalyptic Instructions

Well, with only a few hours of internet, I'm sorry to say that most people won't be able to download even half of his list of things to rebuild society.

18 gigs on how to rebuild third world countries? That would take me about two days to download.
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I imagine that if you were the only person left, there would be more than enough bottled water, sodas, whatever and canned goods and whatnot to last you the rest of your life.
I would have to say... I'd look up how to hot wire cars.
Basic mechanics.
And I'd def want to locate where Nuclear Power plants are and how far away you need to be when they finally melt down.

I think everything really could be found at a library or bookstore though so really no need to hurry to find anything on the net while it's still running.
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Internet?

Why bother? The internet is going to fail; the power grid won't last too long without people to run it; How many desktops/laptops/e-readers are there that use regular batteries or do not need recharging? Unless you're downloading info to a printer filled with several reams of paper, your info will not last very long when the lights go out.

For necessary information and equipment, loot the nearest bookstores and hardware stores.

Going to be plenty of canned/bottled/packaged goods to last--especially if you are the last one in town. Just remember to stay armed just in case there are a few more folks lurking about.
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Torfin, ereader with solar panel to recharge. Not sure how we're going to rebuild society however if there is only one person left. Even God seeded his reality simulator with two humans.
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The problem, as Earth Abides illustrates, is getting the generation born after the disaster to have any interest in maintaining civilization.

Depending on how many survivors could be found, I'd try to rebuild a medieval or Eighteenth Century level of technology in order to bridge that gap. It'd be better to aim for something sustainable after the survivor generation dies off.
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did anyone actually read "earth abides"? It was a group of morons who didn't even know how to farm let alone garden. And this from and author who wrote the book back in the late 1940's where everyone had a victory garden during WWII.

these idiots in this book survived on canned good for decades and nothing else.

then on top of that, the parents in the book didn't teach their children "of the new generation" how to count!!!

This the very last book anyone should use as an example of how the world would be like after a major disaster.

Frankly, everyone in the book are high functioning morons.
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Thorfin, http://www.voltaicsystems.com/ I've never used them but when I was hiking Kilimanjaro there were a couple of people who had them to keep their iphones powered up. I thought it was silly but there actually is a cell signal at the summit and people like to call home while severely oxygen deprived.
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Ummm.. I guess I'll be able to survive. If everyone's missing, there's a lot of stuff laying around. Seeds, food (canned food for decades everywhere). Vegetables to grow. I guess I'll meet with the other survivors, grow food, get high, look at the clouds, listen to the wind, feel the grass beneath my feet. It'll be alright.

I would have no intention to rebuild what we have today.
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Why would you download anything at all, you're not going to have power very long anyway. I'm sure someone has already mentioned this but hello...ever hear of books?
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