Theory: You are the last living creature in the universe!

I used to think about these kinds of things alot but I don't smoke anymore.

Dear God, who would fix the Sonar bugs then?

This is a great question, one I've wrestled with on & off for decades. I'll even ask something slightly more realistic: What would you do if no living creature could hear/understand your music? I'm sure that's a feeling we've all encountered once or twice.

My answer is that I would shut down, pack up the show, unplug the microphones and stop doing music. To me, music is foremost a form of communication; communication by definition must have at least 2 parties, a transmitter & a receiver. So if there's no receiver, it would be the same as a radio station broadcasting to a planet without radios. Pointless.

I realize that some people do music for themselves alone. This would be the only logical argument to continue creating music in a void. I once thought I could do this, but I've realized that my enjoyment of my own music is always hinged on how well I think it communicates a point. Again, if there is no communication then my music is completely inert.

I'd better stop thinking too hard about this. Last time I ended up quitting music for 8 years.

ORIGINAL: rumleymusic

Dear God, who would fix the Sonar bugs then?

Maytag space bugs?

How abstract are we talking here? In a somewhat realistic scenario, if I'm the only one left, it won't be long before the power plants shut down, so there will be no electricity. That means no electronic instruments and no way to record. If that's the case, then it comes down to a matter of playing whatever acoustic instruments I can find, and attempt mastery of them. I would still write songs. Only a small percentage of my stuff has ever been heard by ears other than mine, anyway. For me, writing and playing are a form of therapy and my main creative outlet. Sometimes just writing a song is enough to help me work through something - recording it may not even be necessary.

If we're being a bit more idealistic, and all modern technology is magically available, I'd spend time exploring. There'd be a whole world out there and nobody else to look at it. That would be a tremendously freeing experience.

I'm not really going to worry about whether there are eyes to see or ears to hear after I'm gone, because they'd already be gone by the time I'm the last one left. But I'd probably take a chance on there being some future beings that would stumble along eons later. On that chance, I'd do what I could to leave some sort of mark. Whether they'd be able to interpret or perceive it is another matter entirely. Choosing the medium of communication would probably be a challenge in itself.

A bit more realistically, if I'm the only one left, I'll probably be spending my time maintaining shelter, finding food, and generally surviving. But that's not what you're asking.

ORIGINAL: kev11111111111111

Music is is nothing without people.Its about the group and always has been me thinks.
I think if I was the only living dude left,theres a good chance too that I would get extremly high and begin to speak to Mr Teapot and Mrs Kettle.

LMAO! I spent a winter stuck in Quebec with no outside communication and duuuuuude, Mr & Mrs T & K were my best buddies! I also wrote one of my best songs ever, but that was inspired by the idea that I'd return to the real world and share it. But you said it, human beings are not built to exist alone. If I were truly the last living creature in the universe--no martians, no future civilizations, not even a plant left to talk to, then I'd say the show's over. Time to get wasted on peyote and build a time machine

ORIGINAL: Spaceduck

ORIGINAL: kev11111111111111

Music is is nothing without people.Its about the group and always has been me thinks.
I think if I was the only living dude left,theres a good chance too that I would get extremly high and begin to speak to Mr Teapot and Mrs Kettle.

LMAO! I spent a winter stuck in Quebec with no outside communication and duuuuuude, Mr & Mrs T & K were my best buddies! I also wrote one of my best songs ever, but that was inspired by the idea that I'd return to the real world and share it. But you said it, human beings are not built to exist alone. If I were truly the last living creature in the universe--no martians, no future civilizations, not even a plant left to talk to, then I'd say the show's over. Time to get wasted on peyote and build a time machine

Aye man !

What would you do and how would you feel if you were the last living creature in the universe?

I'd steal all of Eric Clapton's guitars and I'd not be remorseful about it.

I'd locate all the <remaining> gasoline supplies and power generators.

I'd string together all the Marshall stacks I could, power them up and play the lamest version of Sunshine of Your Love and then I'd smile.

ORIGINAL: ohhey

ORIGINAL: kwgm
The Universe will keep buggering on long after people have disappeared from the landscape, but if she needs another blip of conscious life for whatever reason, no doubt she'll make it.

Exactly... the only reason humans are here is because the earth needed plastic and couldn't figure out how to make it.. LOL !

Sort of like a Trojan for the earth?

ORIGINAL: bapu

ORIGINAL: ohhey

ORIGINAL: kwgm
The Universe will keep buggering on long after people have disappeared from the landscape, but if she needs another blip of conscious life for whatever reason, no doubt she'll make it.

Exactly... the only reason humans are here is because the earth needed plastic and couldn't figure out how to make it.. LOL !

Sort of like a Trojan for the earth?

No more like it needed stabilize the soil and the animals just didn't produce a wide enough variety of trash.

It also needed a shorter climate change cycle to keep things refreshed, there were not enough volcanoes scheduled to get the job done, you can't count on impacts (too many variables there...) so,.. creatures that build stuff that belch out carbon was the only way to get it done.

ORIGINAL: chefmike8888

This took me back to "Rush 2112". Great album great story.

I was thinking of that, too. Correct me if I'm wrong, in a nutshell...
In a time where there is no music, a kid finds a lyre and starts playing it. Overjoyed, he takes it to the world to share his music. No one "gets it". The kid is ridiculed & cast out. Kid runs off to a cave and basically dies (suicide? "I don't think I can carry on this cold and empty life / My spirits are low in depths of despair / My lifeblood spills over..."). A short time later the liberators of the Solar Federation arrive... D'OH!!!

ORIGINAL: aaronk

I realize that some people do music for themselves alone.

This is known as "maestro-bation."

Arghhh Oh my God that was terrible

When you say "last living creature", does this include plants? If so, I would not think too much about it as I will soon be dead from starvation, oxygen depletion.

However, if the plants are still kicking, and my life would still be possible, I suspect I would eventually go insane. Do not know if I would commit suicide or not... the loneliness would be so extreme as to make any sort of life intolerable. This assumes I know I am the last living creature.

Would I continue to make music? I doubt it. As others have pointed out, I make music not for myself, but for the enjoyment of others (not that others necessarily enjoy what I make, but that is the goal). I would probably listen to a lot (clean out the CD stores) as that might help stave off the extreme loneliness, but probably not for long.

As I am the last living creature in the universe, there would be little point in keeping records or logs, as there would be nobody who would ever read them. I suspect I would become a hedonist in a massive way. The only thing I would have would be what ever little pleasures I could derive from whats left. I would move somewhere warm, let my hair and beard grow and spend my days naked on a beach somewhere (I do not know about the rest of you but I hate having to wear clothes).

But, in all honesty, I would probably kill myself in the off chance there actually is some sort of life after death. I think God would understand. Things would be different if there was even one other person (preferably female and cute ). With one other person (female) I would probably fair well, as long as I could still reproduce.

If I did not know I was the last creature, I would probably spend my life searching for others, making due the best I can with what's left. I suspect all I would need to carry on and die of old age, is hope. Hope that I will find one other.

Cheers
Shad

when the music is right and just and good it is a triumph and a gift and do we think we have any more purpose than the ants who march in a line, nay if one is called to make music, do so to your utmost and follow your line even if it seem that you are the last Ara www.aratunes.us

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen

When you say "last living creature", does this include plants? If so, I would not think too much about it as I will soon be dead from starvation, oxygen depletion.

However, if the plants are still kicking, and my life would still be possible, I suspect I would eventually go insane. Do not know if I would commit suicide or not... the loneliness would be so extreme as to make any sort of life intolerable. This assumes I know I am the last living creature.

Would I continue to make music? I doubt it. As others have pointed out, I make music not for myself, but for the enjoyment of others (not that others necessarily enjoy what I make, but that is the goal). I would probably listen to a lot (clean out the CD stores) as that might help stave off the extreme loneliness, but probably not for long.

You know, I think plants... even a single dandelion... would be enough to keep me going. Ever read that children's book The Little Prince about the kid who lives alone on an asteroid with a flower? The flower becomes his entire reason for living--the encapsulation of all his love, hope, passion and dreams. I guess you could argue that that is insanity, but I could totally see myself singing & playing guitar to a plant if things got so desperate.

They say plants thrive when you talk to them. I'd probably make it my life's research to see how they react to different types of music. Anything to pass the time, I guess

ORIGINAL: Philip
First, DreamZ, this is impossible from a biological perspective. Creatures (E-Coli, bacteria, etc.) must exist for you and I to be alive. Even your immune system contains hosts of 'creatures' (antibodies, lymphocytes, etc.) that must remain alive within you.

Brilliant thought. To say nothing of external bacteria, what about the very blood cells in your own body? Are they not living organisms? Honestly, this would be enough to give me the strength to continue. If so much as a single red blood cell exists under my care, then who am I to pull the plug? Each of us is a universe. Just because the outer universe goes kaput, there's an inner universe that still depends on us. Who knows, maybe they (blood cells, bacteria, atomic & subatomic particles) even react to music.

ORIGINAL: Philip
Also, when you state "creature," you may imply ID (a creator) ... as many musicians and artists unconsciously do (though most of us seem too insecure to admit). So I'm not really alone, am I DreamZ? ... unless I force myself to disbelieve in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent creation ... I try to speak as an honest scientist, looking at the creation in broad terms. ... not hiding the evidence of an awesome creation.

Here's where you lose me. This is a touchy subject, because everyone has their own faith, but I just wanted to say that the ideas of omnipotence/omniscience are entirely independent of the event of the universe's creation. The universe was indeed created by something or someone--that much is obvious (in a cogito ergo sum sorta way). But aside from faith, there is no logical or scientific rationale to assume that the force which created matter is also the same force that currently governs, maintains and, when necessary, destroys matter. In this respect, I think the Hindus echo my sentiment that there are (at minimum) 3 forces of universal existence: (1) Brahma - the creative force; (2) Vishnu - the preserving force; (3) Shiva - the destructive force.

Another logically & scientifically sound doctrine is the philosophy of Deism which, in a nutshell, admits that there is (or was) indeed a supreme force which created the universe; however this force is not necessarily omniscient. Some Deists believe that the current "supreme beings" are not the creators but rather "children of the creator". It's a possibility.

And this has gone wayyy too far already so I'll drop it right here! I neither embrace nor reject any philosophy. I'm just an observer in this cosmic threepenny opera.

Hey, but I just wanted to toss in this last idea, steering this back on topic...

If you are truly the last living being in the universe
then you are, by definition, the supreme being in the universe
and you are, by definition, "God"
Helluva job to inherit.