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If You're The Last Person On Earth?
You wake up late because the radio does not come on. Outside there is only the sound of the wind, and of the birds in the trees. The roar of jumbo jets coming into land is absent.
And, most shockingly, so is the everpresent rumble of traffic. As the day wears on, the full, horrible, bizarre truth dawns: you are completely, utterly alone.
This is the intriguing plot of what is turning out to be the first movie hit of 2008, I Am Legend, starring Will Smith as (apparently) the last man alive on Earth.
To wake up and find oneself the only human alive, marooned in a modern world in which everyone else has disappeared or been killed by some mysterious virus, is both the stuff of nightmares and of fantasy.
For this would be a tainted paradise, a world in which you could do anything you wanted. You would be a god, a king, but your kingdom would be empty.
Those of a more rugged individualist bent would, one suspects, relish the challenge of remaking the world in their own image. But what is the reality? How long would the average person survive if they woke up to find themselves the only human being left on the planet?
After coming to terms with the shock and the grief, the loss of loved ones and the sheer bewilderment of it all, how quickly would 21st Century Man, whose practical skills extend no further than wiring a plug and putting up some shelves, be able to adapt to a world where he was responsible for every aspect of his survival?
Survival experts have a priority of necessities. At the top are water, food and shelter - the shelter, in a world full of empty buildings, would be no problem. But what about sustenance?
A man can survive six weeks without food, but only six days without water. With everyone gone, no electricity and no maintenance, the pumping stations and treatment works that supply water to the taps would soon stop working. There would be a large amount of fresh water stored in domestic tanks, but this would go stale quite rapidly.
In fact, our survivor would have to rely on that symbol of modern decadence, bottled water. If he or she broke into a large supermarket, they might find several thousand litres of the stuff - purified, sealed in handy storage containers, in the warehouse out the back.
Fortunately, supermarkets also contain a great deal of preserved food. Most tinned meats and vegetables have...
And, most shockingly, so is the everpresent rumble of traffic. As the day wears on, the full, horrible, bizarre truth dawns: you are completely, utterly alone.
This is the intriguing plot of what is turning out to be the first movie hit of 2008, I Am Legend, starring Will Smith as (apparently) the last man alive on Earth.
To wake up and find oneself the only human alive, marooned in a modern world in which everyone else has disappeared or been killed by some mysterious virus, is both the stuff of nightmares and of fantasy.
For this would be a tainted paradise, a world in which you could do anything you wanted. You would be a god, a king, but your kingdom would be empty.
Those of a more rugged individualist bent would, one suspects, relish the challenge of remaking the world in their own image. But what is the reality? How long would the average person survive if they woke up to find themselves the only human being left on the planet?
After coming to terms with the shock and the grief, the loss of loved ones and the sheer bewilderment of it all, how quickly would 21st Century Man, whose practical skills extend no further than wiring a plug and putting up some shelves, be able to adapt to a world where he was responsible for every aspect of his survival?
Survival experts have a priority of necessities. At the top are water, food and shelter - the shelter, in a world full of empty buildings, would be no problem. But what about sustenance?
A man can survive six weeks without food, but only six days without water. With everyone gone, no electricity and no maintenance, the pumping stations and treatment works that supply water to the taps would soon stop working. There would be a large amount of fresh water stored in domestic tanks, but this would go stale quite rapidly.
In fact, our survivor would have to rely on that symbol of modern decadence, bottled water. If he or she broke into a large supermarket, they might find several thousand litres of the stuff - purified, sealed in handy storage containers, in the warehouse out the back.
Fortunately, supermarkets also contain a great deal of preserved food. Most tinned meats and vegetables have...
