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What If You Were the Last Human on Earth? — Transcript

by OminiAM · 1,951 words · 311 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00You wake up. Your phone shows no
0:02notifications. Not one.
0:05Outside, the street is silent. No
0:08traffic, no voices, no kids on their way
0:11to school.
0:13You step out of your front door, and you
0:15see cars stopped in the middle of the
0:16road, engines still running, doors wide
0:20open.
0:21Across the street, a cup of coffee is
0:23still steaming on a cafe table. But
0:25there's no one there.
0:27There's no one anywhere.
0:29In a single instant, 8 billion people
0:32have vanished. And you are the only one
0:36left.
0:37So, what happens to you? How long could
0:40you survive? And what happens to the
0:42world around you once humanity is gone?
0:45This is what would happen hour by hour
0:49and year by year. In the first few
0:51minutes, you won't [music] believe it.
0:53You'll call your family, your friends,
0:56emergency services.
0:58The phone rings
0:59and rings, and nobody picks up. You open
1:03social media, and you find the last post
1:06was made a few hours ago. Then, nothing.
1:09No new messages, no new videos. The
1:12digital world is still running, but it
1:15has turned into a museum. Everything is
1:17still there. Nobody is visiting. And
1:20while you're still trying to make sense
1:22of it, the first real problem begins
1:25somewhere you can't see it. Inside the
1:27power plants.
1:29The electrical grid is one of the most
1:31complex machines humans ever built.
1:34Every second of every day, people in
1:36control rooms balance how much power is
1:38produced with how much is used. Without
1:41them, that balance breaks. Within hours,
1:44the first power stations begin to trip
1:46offline. Safety systems detect problems
1:49and shut them down automatically. Coal
1:52and gas plants keep running only as long
1:54as their fuel lasts, and nobody is
1:56delivering more. One by one, they go
1:59quiet. On the first or second night, you
2:02climb onto your roof and watch your city
2:04go dark, one neighborhood at a time. And
2:07for the first time in your life, you see
2:10the night sky above your city completely
2:12full of stars. The Milky Way stretched
2:15across the sky right above the
2:17skyscrapers.
2:19Not everything shuts down at once,
2:21though. Some large hydroelectric dams
2:23can keep generating power on their own
2:25for weeks, maybe even months, until
2:28their machinery wears out or gets
2:29clogged. And solar panels on rooftops
2:32will keep working for years, as long as
2:34someone wipes the dust off. So, here's
2:36your first rule of survival. If you want
2:39electricity, follow the sun.
2:41Once the power goes out, the water
2:43stops, too. [music]
2:45Most cities rely on electric pumps to
2:47push water through their pipes. You turn
2:49on the tap, and you get a little, then a
2:52trickle,
2:53then nothing.
2:54A human being can survive for [music]
2:56weeks without food, but without water,
2:59you have only about 3 days. [music]
3:01Luckily, the supermarkets are full of
3:03bottled water. You'll have enough to
3:05last a long time, but eventually, you'll
3:08need something [music] permanent. A
3:09river, a well, a barrel on your roof to
3:12catch the rain. And every drop you
3:14collect, you'll need to boil before you
3:17drink it, because now a simple stomach
3:19infection could kill you. By the end of
3:22the first week, you are the richest
3:24person who has ever lived. Every
3:27restaurant [music] is yours. Every store
3:29is yours. Every sports car on the planet
3:32is waiting for you, [music] keys still
3:34in the ignition.
3:36But without electricity, every
3:38refrigerator has stopped. Within days,
3:41the meat and dairy in the supermarkets
3:43begin to rot, and the aisles fill with a
3:46smell you'll never forget. Bread goes
3:48moldy within a week. Fruit and
3:51vegetables wither and collapse.
3:53The food that will keep you alive is
3:55food that doesn't need people. Canned
3:58food, dry rice, dried beans and lentils,
4:02pasta, sugar, salt, and honey. One of
4:06the few foods that can last almost
4:08forever if it's sealed properly. There's
4:11enough canned food in one big city to
4:13feed you [music] for the rest of your
4:15life. But the city is starting to make
4:17new sounds. Dogs barking behind locked
4:20doors, cats crying at windows waiting
4:23for owners who will never come home. Out
4:26in the countryside, millions of farm
4:28animals are waiting for someone to feed
4:30[music] them. Cows that need to be
4:32milked, chickens locked in their coops,
4:35hundreds of millions of pets depended on
4:37us completely. [music]
4:39And now, they're on their own. Many of
4:41them won't make it. The ones that do
4:44will become wilder with every passing
4:46week. Dogs will start forming packs. And
4:49a pack of hungry dogs could become one
4:52of the most dangerous things in your new
4:54world, which is why one of the most
4:56important decisions you'll make in these
4:58first weeks is to find a companion. You
5:01open a door and a dog steps out. Thin,
5:04scared, hungry. You give it food and
5:07water, and from that day on, it never
5:10leaves your side. One dog could be the
5:12difference between survival and madness.
5:15It will guard you at night. It will hear
5:18danger long before you do. And most
5:20importantly, [music]
5:21it will be the only living thing that
5:23looks you in the eyes. Because the real
5:26enemy [music] hasn't shown up yet. A
5:28month has passed. Humans are social
5:31creatures. Our brains evolved to live in
5:33groups, to talk, to be seen by others.
5:37Research on prisoners held in solitary
5:39confinement shows that long periods of
5:41isolation can cause anxiety, insomnia,
5:45panic attacks, even hallucinations.
5:48And you're not in a cell for a few
5:50weeks. You're in a cell the size of a
5:52planet with no release date.
5:55You'll start talking to yourself out
5:57loud. You'll play old videos just to
5:59hear another human voice. You'll write
6:02letters to people you know will never
6:04[music] read them.
6:05Staying sane will be just as important
6:08as staying alive.
6:09So, you'll need a routine, a time to
6:12work, a time to sleep, and a reason to
6:15get out of bed every morning. But while
6:17you're fighting loneliness, another
6:19danger is quietly growing.
6:22Around the world, there are more than
6:23400 nuclear reactors. When the power
6:27fails, most of them are designed to shut
6:29down automatically and safely. That part
6:32works. The problem is the used fuel.
6:35Spent nuclear fuel is stored in deep
6:38pools of water that need to be
6:39constantly cooled by pumps. With no
6:42electricity and no workers to run the
6:44backup generators, that water slowly
6:47heats up and slowly evaporates.
6:50Over weeks to months, some of these
6:52pools could be exposed and radioactive
6:55material could escape into the
6:56surrounding area.
6:58The planet won't explode, but there will
7:00be places where the air, the soil, and
7:03the water become dangerous. Places you
7:06should never go. So, if you live
7:08anywhere near a nuclear power plant, now
7:11would be a very good time to move.
7:143 months in, the internet [music] is
7:16almost completely gone.
7:18Data centers have gone dark. Undersea
7:21cables carry no signal. [music]
7:23Every photo, every movie, every song,
7:27every piece of knowledge humanity ever
7:29put online
7:30is now locked inside silent machines.
7:33And high above you, something else
7:35[music] is slowly coming down. The
7:38International Space Station orbits so
7:40low that it constantly drags [music]
7:42through the thin upper atmosphere.
7:44Engineers used to push it back up
7:46regularly. Now, no one does. Within a
7:50year or a few years, it will fall. And
7:53if you're lucky, one night you might
7:55look up and see a streak of fire
7:57crossing the sky. The last spacecraft
8:00humans ever built, coming home.
8:03Six months in, the cars are dying.
8:06Batteries in abandoned vehicles drain
8:09and go flat. Even fuel goes bad.
8:12Gasoline begins to break down within
8:14months, and after a few years, most of
8:16it is practically useless. The car, the
8:20ultimate symbol of freedom, becomes just
8:22a piece of metal. So, you'll have to
8:25learn what your great grandparents knew.
8:27You'll walk. You'll ride a bicycle. And
8:29maybe one day, you'll ride a horse.
8:32One year has passed. You still have
8:35plenty of canned food, but your body
8:37needs more than that. It needs fresh
8:40food. It needs vitamins. Without fresh
8:42fruit and vegetables for a long time,
8:44you could develop scurvy. Your gums
8:47bleed. Your wounds stop healing. Your
8:49old scars can even reopen. It's the same
8:52disease that killed thousands of sailors
8:54on long voyages centuries ago. The
8:57solution? You have to become a farmer.
9:00Seeds are waiting in every garden store.
9:03Instructions [music] are waiting in
9:04every library. You'll plant and fail.
9:08Plant again and fail again. [music]
9:10And one day, you'll eat a tomato you
9:12grew with your own hands, [music] and it
9:14will be the best thing you've ever
9:16tasted. Meanwhile, the city around you
9:19is changing. Grass is pushing up through
9:22cracks in the asphalt. Birds are nesting
9:24inside broken windows. Weeds are
9:27climbing the walls of office buildings.
9:29And wild animals, deer, foxes, wild
9:33boars, are starting to wander into the
9:35streets as if they own them, because now
9:38they do.
9:39Five years in, the biggest threat to
9:41your life isn't animals or radiation or
9:44hunger.
9:45>> [music]
9:45>> It's your own body. An infected tooth, a
9:49deep cut that gets dirty, a broken leg.
9:52>> [music]
9:52>> Things that a doctor could have fixed in
9:54an hour can now kill you. The medicine
9:57in the pharmacies is slowly losing its
9:59strength. There are no hospitals, no
10:02ambulances, no second opinions. You are
10:05your own doctor, your own surgeon, your
10:08own nurse. And every step you take,
10:11every ladder you climb, every tree you
10:14cut,
10:15you'll take a little more carefully than
10:16the one before. 10 years have passed.
10:20The buildings are starting to fail.
10:22Rain leaks through broken roofs and
10:24soaks the floors.
10:26In winter, water seeps into the cracks,
10:28>> [music]
10:29>> freezes, expands,
10:31and makes the cracks bigger.
10:33Year after year, the same cycle, slowly
10:37tearing concrete apart.
10:39Steel bridges, with nobody to paint or
10:41repair them, are starting to rust.
10:43Underground tunnels, where the pumps
10:45stopped long ago, are completely
10:47flooded. Fires started by lightning burn
10:50through entire neighborhoods, and no one
10:53comes to put them out. 20, maybe 30
10:56years from now, you could stand in the
10:58middle of a city that was once home to
11:00millions,
11:02and find yourself in a forest. Trees
11:05growing out of streets, vines covering
11:07skyscrapers, the roar of traffic
11:10replaced by birdsong.
11:12And you, standing there, older now, your
11:15dog long gone,
11:17the last witness that humans were ever
11:20here.
11:21And then, one day, maybe decades from
11:24now, you'll close your eyes for the last
11:26time. And with you, the last human voice
11:29on Earth goes silent.
11:32No one will mourn you. No one will write
11:34your story.
11:35And the planet will [music] keep going.
11:38Within a few hundred years, most of what
11:40we built will be gone.
11:42What remains will be the strongest,
11:44simplest things. The pyramids, giant
11:47concrete dams, plastic buried deep in
11:50the ground, and footprints on the
11:52surface of the moon, where there's no
11:55wind [music] to ever blow them away.
11:57But maybe, just maybe, you'll do one
12:00last thing before you go.
12:02>> [music]
12:02>> You'll carve a message into stone for
12:05whoever or whatever might come after us.
12:09A message that says, "We were here. We
12:12loved. We built. We made mistakes. And
12:16one of us was the last one left."
12:19So now, I want to ask you. If you were
12:22the last human on [music] Earth, what
12:24would you write on that stone?
12:26Tell me in the comments, and subscribe,
12:29because next time, we're asking an even
12:31bigger question.

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