Last Man: Creating Society From Scratch

Fox picked up a new show this season called, The Last Man on Earth. It is hilarious but also brings up good questions. What would you do if you were the last person on earth? What if you found another person but you guys weren’t compatible? What if then you found more people and you were unhappy with life you inadvertently settled with? How do you begin to rebuild society? What if you are disliked by the members of the only small community in the world? The series is basically about this guy Phil who thought he was the last man on earth. It follows his trials and tribulations from isolation to the rebuilding of a small community. It got me to thinking though. What would I do if I was the last woman on earth? Where would I live? Would I be able to become self-sustaining? Where do I put my garbage and waste?

I would definitely take the time to travel and see the world. Steal a Ferrari, steal a yacht, etc. but it wouldn’t be stealing because I would be the only person left. The show has a lot of elements we forget about when we think about what it would be like to roam around such as the lack of electricity, the loneliness, the lack of plumbing, the lack of garbage disposal and lack of fresh foods. Eventually even if it’s just you, the resources will run out and you will either have to develop a way to sustain your living or keep moving like a leach draining each area for its resources.

This idea of a post-apocalyptic rebuilding was also the center of the reality show called, The Colony. The cast of the show was made up of people from all walks of life that were monitored and had an objective in order to get out of the compound. For an example, one seasons objective was to build a raft/boat of some sort and go down the canal to a certain spot on a map they were given. Of course in the meantime they are left in an abandoned warehouse area and they need to figure out how to get potable water, food, shelter, and defend themselves from raiders. Besides the group dealing with their personalities, it was very interesting to watch them literally make something out of nothing. Then you also realize that there are things besides the essentials that humans crave. One example that comes to mind is when Hurley from the television show Lost goes out and builds a golf course.

From watching these shows that center around life having to rebuild itself and societies forming out of isolated groups it’s fascinating to see how the human mind works and what the human collective can accomplish. To this day I'm still fascinated by how one guy built on the Colony built a water filtration system out of random objects that they found around the compound. Just the ingenuity it takes to be able to innovatively create things out of the most mundane is quite fascinating. Also to watch some sort of hierarchy or government develop so that people can cooperate and get into a system where everyone has a place or job to prevent chaos. It’s really crazy how things can go Lord of the Flies so very quickly.

I think by understanding these dynamics and understanding the processes that go on when there are no laws is very instructional when considering how we all want to develop as a unit, as a species and as a society.