this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
134 points (98.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

34293 readers
1066 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I’m thinking either Bic lighters or cigarettes, just to trade

(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 59 points 2 days ago (4 children)

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.

[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

In the zombie variation, might want to cheat the system and ask for loaded guns. Because guns wear out and get jammed sometimes.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 days ago (4 children)

What if it's like impact winter? Asteroid, forever blocked out sun, winter, and vampires.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Vampires...? Uh, garlic. lol

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 days ago (3 children)

thank you for being on this platform and being so positive. I enjoy seeing your posts and they somehow give me motivation to keep my chin up and be more outgoing with someone I recently met at the dog park who's acting curiously shy and different from most people.

[–] brown567@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
[–] LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's a lovely thing to say Fiivemacs thanks so much

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I second the sentiment. You and other frequent posters of delightful posts help this place to feel more like a community. It's also nice because you make me reflect on my own online presence in a manner that provides a positive pressure to be the kind of person I value in my community; I see usernames like yours crop up again and again, and when I find myself noticing that organically, it makes me wonder what kinds of patterns people notice across my own comments — it's introspective, but in a good way

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] toddestan@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Cort@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

How about "fully staffed, fully functional nuclear reactors"? All the staff could come in handy for rebuilding like everything

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago
[–] AngryRobot@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

I'm diabetic. I choose insulin.

[–] ccunning@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Sergio@piefed.social 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Evil Genie: "Granted." It starts to rain. It never stops.

[–] GrantUsEyes@lemmy.zip 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Like that time it rained for two million years

https://youtu.be/_1LdMWlNYS4

[–] iii@mander.xyz 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Condoms, in case we need to repopulate the earth

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Lukaro@piefed.zip 17 points 2 days ago

Along those lines antibiotics would be better.

[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 days ago

For all you know it would be a drone coming to you to deliver the hot pie directly, not a delivery of all raw ingredients. Then again, you know the old saying, to make a pizza from scratch you first need to create the universe.

[–] shaun@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago (7 children)

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.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Goats. Food, friends and defense.

[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 3 points 1 day ago

Economy Wonderglue. I've played Fallout 4, I know what you need.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 points 2 days ago

Drinkable water.

[–] riquisimo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 days ago (8 children)

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.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] toomanypancakes@piefed.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Gin, I don't plan on surviving in an apocalypse

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You should've said pancakes because then username would check out

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

Bottle caps.

A machine that allows me to travel across space-time so I can just nope-out of the universe amd find a new one in a timelime where the apocalypse didn't happen.

[–] burrito@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Pregnant women. Because they're hot and their milk supply is easy to induce.

Also the fetus is delicious 🍽😋

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago

you can stay in my house 🏡

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] bluGill@fedia.io 11 points 2 days ago

Iodized salt. I live in iowa, we have planty of water (i can figure out how to filter it), and a great climate for growing food. However our soilis naturaly low iodine and there is no salt around so those are critical nutriants I don't think I could get here.

second would be iron - we don't have any and It is usefur for a lot.

[–] figjam@midwest.social 4 points 2 days ago
[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Army MREs, the modern ones.

Assuming I'm not teleported elsewhere, the place I live has plenty of drinkable fresh water and other supplies, so the only real concern is having consistent high-quality food available, and MREs are engineered to support people in the wild for several months, if not years. In case of a major war breaking out, so it would contain everything I would need to stay alive, or to trade to other people.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›