The year is 2020 and nano-technology has developed to function in the human bloodstream as an updatable software/hardware agent for combating disease, mental illness, and blindness…
2028, roughly 70% of the Earth’s population go into an extreme financial deficit to afford the administering of the life-prolonging nanotech – these individuals become known as “walking debt.”
Only 5% of the Earth’s population are either denied loans and can’t afford nano-treatment or refuse altogether to be administered. These people are known as “Pures“…
2032, “Synonymous,” the reformed organization of the crippled hactivist group Anonymous has pledged to restore the natural order of humanity by waging a massive DDoS attack in hopes of neutralizing the human-hosted nanotech to retract the unnatural longevity of human beings that has taken a toll on the Earth’s limited resources…
The assault is successful but with unexpected consequences…
2033, the immune systems, genetic coding, and overall homeostasis of those who were hosts of the nanotech disintegrate because of the dependency for the alternative health measures. As a result, the composition of all those who were nano-hosts gradually degrade under the natural illnesses and diseases.
An estimated 3 billion people die. Those who survive are known as “Impures“…
Society collapses…
The remaining populations of the Pures and Impures fight for the dwindling resources, where decisions of “who has a right to what” become the difference between life and death…
For this endeavor, I would choose to have Immanuel Kant as my “Hershel” (wise old man from The Walking Dead) in my surviving trio of “Pures,” because even though a utilitarian mindset might be better for self-preservation, I would want to wage out the price of life through the lens of caring for others as my duty. He would look over the potential entitlement of those who were Pures and see it as a duty to take care of the Impures.
Secondly, I would choose my brother Josiah from the class because he has a similar mindset, we both were raised in the woods and could live off the land, and he’s excellent with throwing knives. He hunts for his own food, respects the land, and is a spiritual encouragement. His naturally giving, yet protective, heart would serve as a good judge of character for any Impures we would want to take in.
Lastly, I would choose my future wife (whom I have yet to meet) to repopulate the Earth with and start our own responsible, caring society. She would be a huge emotional support for our trio, also bringing herbal, cooking, medicinal, and extracurricular skills to the group. Being a guarded and secluded individual, my wife will balance me out and have a caring heart for those who may not benefit us through a utilitarian point of view, but deserve the chance of life altogether.
Picture source: http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me7gllJ1BP1rkuj2ro1_1280.jpg
The World is Flat? 
I like this post…but it seems like your plan for your future wife might be a little bit narrow-minded. What if your wife turns out to be a powerhouse of a woman and leads your team is arduous battles. What if she turns out to be Charlize Theron from Mad Max? She kills everyone. Cooking in seclusion as an emotional support system might be unrealistic, especially in a post-apocalyptic scenario.
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I think this is a excellent post especially the way it is presented with lots of detail. I also think it is great to choose someone in your family, I wish my brother was in the class. Family is trustworthy and even if you dispute there is always the heart of the situation in which you both want each other to succeed. I am going to also agree with West, I think having your future wife could be a great idea but the attributes you pose put her at a disposition. I think she could bring much more to the table especially in an post-apocalyptic setting where power is needed and wanted.
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Open mindedness is a worthy attribute, and I would agree that there is value in your point West, but you would have to know Jacob (and what it’s actually like to have to eat what you kill and survive in the wild where we grew up, his background, etc.) a little better to understand his personal partner-profile. For example, the fact that he is an herbalist, forager, cook and seclusive person himself. He knows the type of significant other that he will compliment with skills, and vice versa (with deficiencies as well). I’m sure he has no problem with Charlize coming along (win), and is not writing a thesis on “the place of women in apocalyptic society.”
If someone posted “My future apocalypse husband will have x attributes (strength, endurance, empathy, quiet temperament, good with a gun, large appendages, etc.) ” I think we would would hardly take offense at what they see as a viable partner.
Basically, good observation, but we must be careful calling others narrow-minded, since often we are all simple working on part of the picture ourselves.
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Thanks, Josiah, for explaining. I hear where you’re coming from, West and Margaret, but why does she have to be like Charlize Theron? Isn’t that just as much a narrow-minded niche to place her in? No one these days knows anything about how to preserve the essence of life itself by living in the wild through foraging, herbal medicinal treatment, nutritional supplication, and interpersonal spiritual/emotional development anymore, it is actually a rare and broad-minded ideal to think that there would be someone with those skill sets that I can share my life with (seeing that she could’ve died with the billions of other people). She may not want to be thrown in with the atypical “Lara Croft” persona of scantily clad gore-monger. Tranquility and self-control is just as much a desirable aspect as the inverse. I would prefer it in myself and I would hope that my future wife (whomever she may be) would have a preference towards that as well.
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Kant may have lived too refined a life to be a good Hershel. Maybe take Aldo Leopold who was also an outdoorsman. Although he is kind of obscure- buried in our Orr reading.
Your apocalypse is very creative. You better write that down and sell it to AMC or a studio.
Have you read Feed or Station Eleven?
Both are novels that touch on some of your ideas. Feed deals with people who are cyber-augmented (the can see a feed like the internet inside their heads), but getting augmented puts many in debt and at risk of poor systems. Station Eleven is about a traveling symphony in a disease post-apocalyptic world who have a big sign that says “survival is not enough.”
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Many thanks, professor! I will check out those two, they sound awesome!
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I think looking at the whole of Jacob’s posts, we can give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not merely looking for a partner to place her in a patriarchaly-defined role of constraints.
@westshepherd makes a fair point that to only define one’s spouse in limiting gender terms can work against human freedom- the freedom to kick butt like Charlize or to be an herbalist or what have you.
The interesting point is that if apocalypses are useful mirrors of reality, then what we seek in a partner/spouse in an imagined apocalypse may be just what we desire in real life. No one asked me, but having been married happily for almost 20 years, I can say that mutual compatibility matters.
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