It's time for an overhaul

The Last Woman on Earth

A reddit post asked what people would do if they were the last person of their sex left on Earth.

It was full of stories about how the last man would either have the time of his life, or be drained by a machine for the rest of his days, or be carelessly raped by lustful women because sperm banks would still be around, and thus the world would have all the material needed to repopulate without him anyway.

The stories about the last women were just as grim, if not more. Virtually every responder couldn't conceive of a worse life, imagining an existence of endless and violent abuse.

I like to hope otherwise. I think it could turn out well, if you were the last woman on Earth. Humanity can do incredible things when it has to. It's not difficult to imagine most everyone would recognize the sheer precariousness of the situation, and collectively agree that the survival of the species hinges upon that single woman's wellbeing.

Thus the last woman on Earth could very well become a near-deity. As the only hope for humankind, She would need to be protected at all costs, lest all be doomed. Humanity's primary project would be to ensure Her health and fertility. She would get the best possible care. And for the sake of reproduction, male partners would have to be very carefully selected.

Men abusing Her at will, as redditors seem to think would happen, would be a terrible long-term strategy for producing healthy children. It would be wiser to tend to Her wellbeing as much as possible, and I fully believe that most of mankind would recognize the importance of this.

Being perpetually pregnant until menopause would be very difficult, of course — though not unlike the experience of millions of women before contraception existed. Except, in this case, a lot more social energy would be devoted to ensuring Her care, and She'd have all the benefits of modern medicine at her disposal, as well as all the help in the world with Her (female) children.

Ultimately, She would likely have a good life and be remembered forever as the Mother of mankind, the most important person in the history of the world. We already have ancient myths and cultures that glorify and semi-deify women for their ability to bear children. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to imagine that if there were only one left, She would become the closest thing to a Goddess we've ever had.

(I'm sadly less optimistic about the whole story once fertile daughters enter the picture).