You wake up and you're the only one alive. What do you do?

[Laggartha]

I've just started watching I Think We're Alone Now and this is the premise. I'm only 8 minutes in and we've just seen how our hero spends his time.

I think it's a fascinating idea so I had to pause it to consider what I would do. What would you do?

WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants

boat and bike rather than plane

Cup of coffee and have a think about why that should be true and trying to establish it as factually correct. Probably try to access news services. If it’s on my own, no updates

@Myneighboursdomyheadin

GoLightlyontheEarth

This post below is one of those ones that seem like an incredibly stupid question but then you start to think about it and it isn't :)

"Well you couldn’t put the kettle on as there would be no electricity. Your dinner might be a problem as you couldn’t cook it on a cooker and the supermarkets would be empty".

"I'm not up on this stuff, but how much of that is automated tho? How long would it all continue without someone to press buttons and levers?"

Yes I really want know the answer to all this!

How long before the regular electricity supply stops? How long before I no longer have running water? How long would I have mains gas?

Could be hours, days, weeks, I have absolutely no idea!

@HeronLanyon

I too keep returning to this. My current problem is once I decide to make the move out of london to a well set up off grid property (and I have one in mind far west of Cornwall) I’d end up a huge distance from nearest big townie even small city for raiding trips. It’s hard to find the balance between being self sufficient and close to b and q /R9bert dyas/Ryman/Jewsons/mountain warehouse and supermarkets for long life stuff. Then I realise I’d need horses and pack horses and if so some vet skills etc. It is a conundrum !

Yes I’ve been think similar- you don’t want to end up too remote.

And/or you need to stockpile for every foreseeable eventuality over the first few months where you’ll be able to travel quite freely just by commandeering any vehicle you find parked on someone’s drive or at a depot etc where you can lay your hands on the keys.

Over time cars that haven’t been used or maintained are going to stop working so the ‘Grand Theft Auto’ approach to getting from
A to B is time limited.

and the supermarkets would be empty

Why empty? They wouldn’t be restocked but still, they’d have a lot there wouldn’t they

Move into the biggest most luxury house in the area with a pool, sauna, cinema room etc and live like a queen!

I'd watch the end of Succession finally because my bloody annoying husband takes way to long to watch a boxset. I'd go to the art galleries and nick all my favourite paintings to hang in my house. I'd stock up on guns and bullets because animals would go wild and that terrifies me. I'd take over and fill all my neighbours freezers.

I’d probably spend the first two weeks getting properly set up - food stores, survival stores, etc. Then I’d probably spend about a month or two making my way through all the homes in my neighbourhood, hopefully drinking good wines, reading good books and coming upon some interesting discoveries along the way. I think I’d stay in my own home (for sleeping, etc, I mean), at least for a while, because it’d be my only physical link to those I love. I’d print out all my and DH’s photos and our texts/msgs and all my family’s and my daughters’ social media, so I could see their faces and their musings.

After a while my own home would become less important because the link to my loved ones would exist more strongly in my own head. So I’d probably leave my home and travel a little further afield in my town.

I’m not sure how far I’d venture, though. I suppose my evolutionary need for human contact would likely compel me to go further and further in case someone else is alive. Or maybe I’d genuinely learn to love being utterly alone (I’m quite insular anyway), since I couldn’t be with my loved ones anyway. I might live out my entire life staying in this town. I might move into the local castle at some point!

*was alive.

@MarshaBradyo

and the supermarkets would be empty

Why empty? They wouldn’t be restocked but still, they’d have a lot there wouldn’t they

Yes any large supermarket would last one person for months. My local asds is a hypermarket. It is honestly MASSIVE. obviously the fridge/fresh produce wouldn't last but frozen stuff would stay pretty cold for a while until you opened the freezer. And the amount of cereal, UHT milk, tins, ambient stuff like biscuits and dried fruit would last for so long.

And that's just the shop floor, not to mention the warehouse as well.

Plus bottled water, fruit juice, canned drinks, long life milk and milk substitutes...

Choc same here plus all the other London supermarkets and beyond if driving.

Apart from the initial horrible thought re losing people the thread is a good one. It’s made me think about films and whether any have captured this well.

On the beach was good but too hammy.

Oh I could live for years off our local supermarkets. I’d be more concerned about how to make sure animals didn’t raid them.

I’m down an internet rabbit hole now reading about how long infrastructure would keep operating if no one was around to run it.

Yeah I wouldn’t bank on anything working tbh.

And as soon as water can get into buildings nature will start claiming them back with a vengeance.

I’ve just realised I’d be very sad for all the animals on farms, homesteads, in zoos and safari parks who wouldn’t get fed.

And all the pets! I’d have to go from house to house and at least let them out...

Ninkanink

Tinned and packaged food but the freezer food would rot, such a shame

How would you know you where the only person left & therefore would you search for other humans?

I wouldn’t search. I wouldn’t want to find anyone but my loved ones.

"I’m down an internet rabbit hole now reading about how long infrastructure would keep operating if no one was around to run it."

well come back bloody up woman and tell us the answers!
In particular:

1. can you get hydroelectricity to keep working?
2. can you get a solar panel to keep working?
3. would wind turbines still work for a while even without maintenance or would they shut down?

i guess if you went to an off-grid place and they had solar panels you'd know you were on the right lines.

I just had a thought re all the ships left aimlessly on the seas, maybe ending up on shores (maybe because I’m shipping something currently).

Oh Marsha good point. Now I’m worried about marine life and pollution on top of everything else.

What you could do then is set up a base in a supermarket. The first task would be collecting up all the fresh produce before it rotted (from fruit/veg to meat putting it in a truck and taking it elsewhere, probably outside the local zoo). Obviously I would keep what I wanted to eat for the first few days/weeks too. Then I would raid a vets for supplies specifically tranquilizers and go and let all the smaller vegetarian animals out of the zoo. Then I would tranquilize the lions etc and open their cages, scarpering before they woke up. They probably wouldnt go far at first anyway because there would be a big pile of supermarket meat there (plus realistically the vegetarian animals but at leas they would have a head start to run away and the lions would be woozy. At least they would have a fighting chance to live and a quick death rather than starving in their cages). Then I would head back to my supermarket base. It is possible of course that a lion might venture to my area and eat me, but it seems unlikely given the size of the area it could roam in. I would let the animals out of houses and maybe adopt some of the cats/dogs if they let me. Then, once I was safe (you can lock the supermarket doors) I would use some of the drugs I got from the vets recreationally, drink champagne and do whatever I wanted

myneighbours I am also keenly awaiting answers - can’t finalise plans until I know.
Tbh I’m assuming everything at some point ‘plugs into’ a ‘grid’ or needs a power source to run it.

That’s why I’m thinking hard about a water wheel and small (mechanical) windmill type affair. I don’t want to grind much grain though and struggling to work out what else they would help with (water bore hole I guess - not needed if have water wheel) ?? I don’t even know the basics.

@HeronLanyon

myneighbours I am also keenly awaiting answers - can’t finalise plans until I know. Tbh I’m assuming everything at some point ‘plugs into’ a ‘grid’ or needs a power source to run it.

That’s why I’m thinking hard about a water wheel and small (mechanical) windmill type affair. I don’t want to grind much grain though and struggling to work out what else they would help with (water bore hole I guess - not needed if have water wheel) ?? I don’t even know the basics.

It wouldnt be impossible to rig up some sort of steam powered devices. You would need a lot more knowledge to convert it into electrictiy, but presumably if you got it to power a basic motor there are plenty of "wind up" chargers etc you could charge that way and then use to power small electronic devices. Oooh, or you can use lemons and potatoes to power radios to listen for survivors...

Oh for goodness sakes you are right about wind up things - forgot all about (and I have a wind up lantern!).
Slightly fearful of steam - memories of Victorian explosions from school lessons.
I need skills.