this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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I’m thinking either Bic lighters or cigarettes, just to trade

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 5 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Antibiotics.

We all would die so quickly and horribly without them.

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

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

also cum

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago

Condoms, in case we need to repopulate the earth

[–] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

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?

[–] dimjim@sh.itjust.works 6 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

And is a life without cheese and butter really worth living?

Shit you got me there, milk it is!

[–] RangerAndTheCat@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

I’m lactose intolerant… but damn if you didn’t sell me on this OP

[–] thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

malted barley In the end of the world, or even just at the collapse of civilization as we know it, these can be used to make beer. Yeast is naturally occurring, hops just grow on vines, but malting grains seems to be the hardest part of the process to me.

[–] ChexMax@lemmy.world 1 points 13 minutes ago

Wait so why didn't you just pick beer?

[–] toddestan@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours 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 5 points 11 hours ago

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

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 3 points 13 hours ago

Electricity

[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 1 points 10 hours ago

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

[–] burrito@sh.itjust.works 6 points 16 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 hours ago

you can stay in my house 🏡

[–] compostgoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 15 hours ago

What an odd thing to say.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Also the fetus is delicious 🍽😋

[–] SoGrumpy@lemmy.ml 8 points 8 hours ago

What a time to be literate.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 128 points 1 day ago (4 children)
[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 54 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This really is it. Sure, a high water ratio soup would provide both nourishment and fluids for living, but basic clean water allows for cleaning and the ability to grow food or trade for other stuff.

Plus truly unlimited means you can start your own river to help society recover!

[–] pdxfed@lemmy.world 38 points 1 day ago (2 children)

We're putting Gatorade on the crops and they don't grow. Ground is broken!

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[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If you are going that route: Rule of 3

3 minutes without oxygen. 3 days without water. 3 weeks without food (I think it is also "3 hours without shelter" but that is a much more environmental factor and feels shoehorned in). And, depending on the apocalypse, clean air can be hard to come by.

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[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 2 points 13 hours ago

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.

[–] AngryRobot@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago

I'm diabetic. I choose insulin.

[–] LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 25 points 1 day 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 22 hours 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 5 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)
[–] LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 6 points 18 hours 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

[–] LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 11 hours ago

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

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[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 4 points 16 hours ago

Heroin. Either build an army of addicts who're completely loyal to me or I can just off myself depending on how things are going.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 8 points 19 hours ago

Drinkable water.

[–] toomanypancakes@piefed.world 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

Gin is correct, because there's no such thing as too many pancakes.

[–] Carrolade@lemmy.world 54 points 1 day ago (3 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 15 points 1 day 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.

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[–] cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca 18 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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

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[–] Lukaro@piefed.zip 17 points 23 hours ago

Along those lines antibiotics would be better.

[–] Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Goats. Food, friends and defense.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Yes of course, but also...

[–] Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 1 points 31 minutes ago

Recreation.

[–] ccunning@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (5 children)
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[–] figjam@midwest.social 3 points 17 hours ago
[–] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day 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 18 points 1 day 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 18 points 1 day ago (6 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.

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