You get an unlimited supply of a single item to survive post-apocalypse. What are you choosing, and why?
I’m thinking either Bic lighters or cigarettes, just to trade
clean water
This really is it. Sure, a high water ratio soup would provide both nourishment and fluids for living, but basic clean water allows for cleaning and the ability to grow food or trade for other stuff.
Plus truly unlimited means you can start your own river to help society recover!
If you are going that route: Rule of 3
3 minutes without oxygen. 3 days without water. 3 weeks without food (I think it is also "3 hours without shelter" but that is a much more environmental factor and feels shoehorned in). And, depending on the apocalypse, clean air can be hard to come by.
I've heard it phrased "3 hours without shelter in inclement weather".
Yeah, obviously need the first that that will kill you. We take breathable air for granted. But if you need an infinite supply of clean air, you are probably dead anyway. An infinite supply of water has many uses beyond drinking and hygine -- irrigation, power, and cooling come to mind as very useful post-apocalypse.
We can clean up the entire Capital Wasteland!
I was thinking Fallout 4 when I said it. The cans of pure water.
Aqua-pura for sale!
Came here to say just that.
What flavor of apocalypse matters a lot. If it's zombies, ammo becomes critical. If it's nuclear, ammo is less important and water filtration probably becomes critical. If it's a gigantic asteroid that blots out the sun, water is easy to find but food is critical.
For an unknown apocalypse, I think I'll go with gasoline. Not critical in and of itself, but helps a lot more generally with a lot of stuff, being able to power a generator and move camp more easily.
What if it's like impact winter? Asteroid, forever blocked out sun, winter, and vampires.
Vampires...? Uh, garlic. lol
Enough gasoline could blow the asteroid up, preventing the whole thing. Forever blocked sun means no food but with gasoline you can power lamps for the plants. Burn gasoline to keep warm against the winter and burn vampires using gasoline. It is a christian invention after all /s
Gasoline doesn't seem like a bad choice tbh. Also good for trading if, for example, water is scarce.
In the zombie variation, might want to cheat the system and ask for loaded guns. Because guns wear out and get jammed sometimes.
Smart move
If it's a gigantic asteroid that blots out the sun, water is easy to find but food is critical.
Well, no, (liquid) water would be quite scarce :P
And still, only a small amount of water on Earth is actually drinkable.
Milk, given an unlimited supply i won't have to worry about it spoiling. Gives a decent amount of nutrients and water and can use it to make cheese or butter eventually, And is a life without cheese and butter really worth living?
And is a life without cheese and butter really worth living?
Shit you got me there, milk it is!
I’m lactose intolerant… but damn if you didn’t sell me on this OP
You could use the rotting milk to farm insects for protein.
Water; for living
Evil Genie: "Granted." It starts to rain. It never stops.
Like that time it rained for two million years
"I've seen drier days on Ferenginar. And we have a hundred seventy-eight different words for rain. Right now it's glebbening out there. And that's bad."
Hugs from a nice person. The apocalypse is going to be really depressing I'll need the love
thank you for being on this platform and being so positive. I enjoy seeing your posts and they somehow give me motivation to keep my chin up and be more outgoing with someone I recently met at the dog park who's acting curiously shy and different from most people.
Fresh, hot pizza from Ray's.
Not fresh at the time of the apocalypse. Fresh at the time I seek it.
Of course that would mean I would also get a steady supply of clean water and of all the ingredients required to make the pizza. But that is simply a secondary side effect of having made my choice for the one, single thing.
For all you know it would be a drone coming to you to deliver the hot pie directly, not a delivery of all raw ingredients. Then again, you know the old saying, to make a pizza from scratch you first need to create the universe.
Toilet paper. During apocalyptic scenarios, it's worth is apparently uncountable, so I will be able to trade it and live a life of opulence.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to finally see the first item to disappear in every real apocalypse I've been through. Plus it's man's greatest invention. Just ahead of the Hubble space telescope.
Got that covered .... I'm still going through my excess toilet paper supply I bought during the start of the 2020 pandemic. When people started clearing the shelves of toilet paper, we panicked and bought several whole cases of the stuff. It was completely insane.
I haven't bought toilet paper in five years.
I recommend you consider baby wipes and invest in an apocalyptic marketing campaign that praises the variety of usages in face, neck, armpit, crotch and butt wiping.
Along those lines antibiotics would be better.
All you big brains saying water.
My first thought was soybeans, since they're so versatile. Or corn for the same reason. Granted, I don't have any way to process them so I didn't think it through.
But a food source that also provides water would be a good idea. Watermelon is too sweet to be your primary food though.
Food sources don't provide water unless there is water to grow them, and if the water is contaminated that will just end up in the food.
Ok, well, "uncontaminated soybeans"
Potatoes are the best. Easy to grow in marginal soil, varied ways to cook them, and they store easily long term in a simple root cellar.
Add in some squash like pumpkins which have the same advantages and you should be good to go.
Ive heard if you need to survive, potatoes, radishes, and beans do really well.
Personally ive had more luck with radishes and beans. They grow quick in just about anything. I keep killing my Potatos!
I'm diabetic. I choose insulin.
Bottle caps.
Antibiotics.
We all would die so quickly and horribly without them.
Iodized salt. I live in iowa, we have planty of water (i can figure out how to filter it), and a great climate for growing food. However our soilis naturaly low iodine and there is no salt around so those are critical nutriants I don't think I could get here.
second would be iron - we don't have any and It is usefur for a lot.
Electricity would be tempting. If you have access to water, you can boil it to make it safe. Run a refrigerator to store food. A convenient source of heat for cooking. Stay warm in the winter, stay cool in the summer. Lights for when it's dark. Use power tools to build things. Listen to music, watch movies, play those old Nintendo games.
Even after some time when your electronics break down and scavenging working ones gets tough, it's not difficult to build things like simple resistive heaters. Making crude incandescent light bulbs wouldn't be impossible either.
How about "fully staffed, fully functional nuclear reactors"? All the staff could come in handy for rebuilding like everything
Electricity
Easy answers first. Potable water! You need it every day, helps with sanitation, growing food, etc.
If you wanted more like discrete consumable objects, keflex.
Edit: Or salt!
Ooh, salt is a good one!
Army MREs, the modern ones.
Assuming I'm not teleported elsewhere, the place I live has plenty of drinkable fresh water and other supplies, so the only real concern is having consistent high-quality food available, and MREs are engineered to support people in the wild for several months, if not years. In case of a major war breaking out, so it would contain everything I would need to stay alive, or to trade to other people.
Even modern MRE’s only provide stable nutrition for about three weeks— they don’t provide complete nutrition. After that, you need to supplement it with other nutritional sources.
I mean, they are chock full of all sorts of preservatives to extend their shelf life, but they also have things like toilet paper and wipes, spoons and forks, heating pads, and various other things, and they can be eaten cold if there's some reason not to start a fire.
That being said, you can live a very long life eating only MREs. It's not like if you only ate them for three weeks you would die. You might have some malnourishment, and you might desperately long for something else, but it wouldn't be the nutrition issue that would kill you. They are designed to keep people alive in situations where bullets are an occupational hazard.
But if I have an infinite supply of them and they are fresh, then when I encounter people that are starving I can trade it to them for bullets or knives or I can just give them away. Could probably save a lot of lives by being a food producer capable of keeping people alive.
The largest risk I would face would be growing tired of the assortment.
Hmm, not specifying which one, I see. Granted; it's always chicken fajita.
Drinkable water.
Insulin.
unlimited other earths to live in
My meds. I don't think I'll be able to do shit without them.
nobody has said rice or potatoes or anything like that. you're all completely fucked
also cum
also cum
Got that in droves. Ima protein shot dispenser
there could be more cum
Pregnant women. Because they're hot and their milk supply is easy to induce.
What an odd thing to say.
Also the fetus is delicious 🍽😋
What a time to be literate.
you can stay in my house 🏡
Not a single mention of bullets? Seriously?
In an apocalypse, ammunition will be worth more than gold.
Metro 2033 ing intensifies
Maybe in a zombie apocalypse, but what are you gonna do with bullets in a regular apocalypse?
You may be the only person you'll ever see for years at a time. You can't drink them, you can't plant them, you can't build with them.
You could probably use them on yourself if you've got a gun that they work in, though, especially if that's the only one item you decided to choose for long-term survival. 😮
Will "fully equipped cruize ship" count as one item? Then I can scavenge them for all parts required to build new civilization.
And if it is not, then question to OP, what is the limit for the composite items to stop being counted as one item?
Why cruise ship and not aircraft carrier?
I don't know how to drive an aircraft carrier, silly
Condoms, in case we need to repopulate the earth
I don't think condoms are going to help you with that buddy.
I think he's opting out, or trying to prevent it altogether
Beans. Not only about the most important food source, legumes are also natural nitrogen fixers for soil health.
Gin, I don't plan on surviving in an apocalypse
You should've said pancakes because then username would check out
Gin is correct, because there's no such thing as too many pancakes.
A machine that allows me to travel across space-time so I can just nope-out of the universe amd find a new one in a timelime where the apocalypse didn't happen.
Paracord. You can weave it into just about anything. Can probably also weave a water filter.
Fully-stocked cruise ships.
AA-batteries
weed
Nanobots!
You guys were smart to say water, first thing I thought of when I read the question though was peanut butter.
Heroin. Either build an army of addicts who're completely loyal to me or I can just off myself depending on how things are going.
a thermos of fruit smoothies that is forever cold and will not run out. This kinda work with all kind of apocalypse because foods and drinks is the number 1 thing that would hard to come by, and smoothie is both food and water.
Post-apocalyptic enough for that item not to be 7.62x51?
Lighter is a good choice, but I'm thinking toilet paper rolls for bartering.
Fully loaded guns. Watermelons (provides nutrition and water) are also a good candidate.
Ongoing? Fresh clean salad 🥗. This assumes I can scrounge/ kill/ for other kinds of food. It implies there's a source somewhere, so perhaps I could trace it, for water and arable land. It contains clean water, and while lettuces are not a super food they have C which I can't store and K which is good for cuts. And if necessary I could wipe my ass with a leaf of it .
A) Something to trade (rely on others)
B) Something for ME to survive on (rely on nobody)
C) Something to rebuild (everyone relies on me)
I generally lean towards rebuilding, but it really depends on what apocalypse we're talking about here. Zombie? Nuclear war? Asteroid? Nazis? Waterworld?
So, assuming I can survive enough, I'd pick rebuild critical tech like rubber or a way to forge steel or a critical chemical. Think, "Doctor Stone".
But if I need to survive like a water world or a desert world or a zombie outbreak, what I pick is going to be pretty fucking different. Cigarettes don't mean shit if there's no water. Water don't mean shit if that's all you have. And none of that matters if you're stuck in a world with aerosolized zombie infection that results in smart running zombies that fast heal.
Economy Wonderglue. I've played Fallout 4, I know what you need.
malted barley In the end of the world, or even just at the collapse of civilization as we know it, these can be used to make beer. Yeast is naturally occurring, hops just grow on vines, but malting grains seems to be the hardest part of the process to me.
Wait so why didn't you just pick beer?
That's a good question
Ok so some people are asking what type of apocalypse but I feel that's mostly irrelevant because you said it's a post apocalypse scenario. The apocalypse has already passed.
So there's kind of two options. One is where I would be the sole survivor on the planet, and the other is where there's still pockets of survivors out there.
Most post apocalypse situations involve other people surviving, so I'll start there.
You didn't put a limiter on what the item could be, whether it had to be realistic or not, and how this supply would come to be. So I'll give three answers, each with different degrees of what I'm assuming your intention behind the question is.
The first would be an infinite supply of non tricky, non malevolent genie lamps. Infinite wishes baybee, this trumps pretty much everything.
Something more fantastic but more reasonably grounded would be computers, with a complete set of data on human history, art, music, science and schematics, with instructions on how to rebuild society in a more equitable way, translated into all languages possible, with a pictogram of how to charge it up etched on the outside. Pass those suckers around, rebuild society, got infinite of them, everyone gets one and it has the windows space pinball from the 90s on it just for fun.
But since you said lighters, to play with the idea of things that exist, I'm gonna go with tents. Probably those onion shaped ones that are designed to be permanent housing, or yurts. Sure water and food are important but without shelter you're fucked, and I could house everyone.
Now if it were an apocalypse where I'm the only survivor, I would want an infinite supply of one thing.
A packet of Timtams.
Flour. Maybe rice. Something of that nature. The only alternative option that's even close to food might be fuel, depending on the nature of the disaster.
Water is everywhere outside of deserts, and there's enough raw materials for a thinned population to recycle for a long time. Food and medicine is what separates the living from the dead, and medicine isn't a single item. Edit: Although antibiotics or water treatment tablets are probably the closest approximation.
Pleasantly surprised to not see more throwing star-type answers.
Fuel cans probably.
can I get them all in one lump sum or do I have to use them up before getting another?
Paper, good for lighting fires and keeping people honest. Also I'm guessing pretty hard to make
Depends on the apocalypse.