Ask Lemmy

drinkable water

clean water

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?

Not a single mention of bullets? Seriously?

In an apocalypse, ammunition will be worth more than gold.

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?

I think alcohol would be useful for trading.

Beans. Not only about the most important food source, legumes are also natural nitrogen fixers for soil health.

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.

Hugs from a nice person. The apocalypse is going to be really depressing I'll need the love

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.

Water; for living

Antibiotics.

We all would die so quickly and horribly without them.

My meds. I don't think I'll be able to do shit without them.

unlimited other earths to live in

I'm diabetic. I choose insulin.

Along those lines antibiotics would be better.

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.

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.

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.

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.

BACKUP. GLASSES.

nobody has said rice or potatoes or anything like that. you're all completely fucked

also cum

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.

ammunition could get you anything you could need. drinking water would be a second i guess, but you could with effort gather drinkable water.

ammunition is heavy, but no where near as heavy as water for trading purposes,

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.