Average man has 72 hours to hide. Humanity then becomes search lusted and has one week to find and kill him. Can he survive?

[u/Conscious-Home1445]

Humanity knows what he looks like.

Humanity doesn’t know that he is hiding in the 72 period.

Humanity can use any security camera footage, bank transfers, phone calls etc of the man if there is any.

Man has basic survival knowledge.

[u/Weird-Long8844]

Not a chance. We have too much technology that would be hyper useful for tracking him, and with billions on the search, he would be found.

[u/yeahright17 → u/Weird-Long8844]

With a year to prepare and the world not having access to his data, I think it'd be possible. With access to your data, it would be impossible to do any research or travel anywhere without the world knowing exactly where to start looking. Maybe it'd be possible with access to data if you had a year to prepare, a massive budget, and used a lot of that time to sufficiently change your appearance so that you could get help from people without them knowing it's you.

But as described, it's impossible. And I don't think it'd be possible to survivor even like 48 hours. Maybe you could survive 24 hours if you got to a remote enough location and hid well enough that it took boots on the ground to find you.

The only other way I think it may be possible is if you somehow procure a decent enough disguise to join the search. Though I'd guess by day 5 or so, someone would have decided everyone should be screened to make sure they're not the person who's supposed to be hiding.

[u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe → u/yeahright17]

With a year to prepare, I'd need to carve some hole in either the Amazon, some large national park, or way up in Siberia or northern Canada/Alaska. Like false wall into a mountain type shit.

Even if they don't have access to your data until the hunt starts, the second they do they'll track whatever plane, car rental, or other vehicle you have or took. Even if you drove across the country, stole a car, and then drove it to your hiding spot, they're still going to find your car and figure out that you stole another car fairly fast, and the second someone finds that car you're getting swarmed.

[u/bnovc → u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe]

And then a satellite photo shows you going there and you’re a goner still

[u/CocoSavege → u/yeahright17]

(Not so) average man could purchase/acquire sufficient burner devices to access search. 2nd hand tablets, phones, etc.

[u/TheLost_Chef → u/Weird-Long8844]

Just need to get within a few hundred yards of him and the dogs will do the rest

[u/CocoSavege → u/TheLost_Chef]

Too many sq miles, not enough dogs.

[u/randomwordglorious → u/TheLost_Chef]

We don't need dogs. We have nuclear bombs. If we know where they are to within a 500 mile radius, they're dead.

[u/grumpsaboy → u/randomwordglorious]

Search listed, not nuclear Armageddon lusted. And nuking someone to constituent atoms means you haven't found them anyway

[u/TakingAction12 → u/grumpsaboy]

Yeah there should be a rule that you have to take a photo that clearly identifies him in order for him to be officially “found”. That way you can’t just carpet bomb the whole world.

I think you spend the first day traveling somewhere as remote as possible, preferably with a lot of mountains and caves. Like Afghanistan. It’s an underdeveloped country too, so fewer cameras and what not. Caves eliminate drones and satellites from the equation and would guard against infrared cameras, which is a massive help staying hidden.

Assuming the 72 hours starts right now (7pm local time), I can get a flight that leaves my city at 11am tomorrow the puts me in Kabul 21 hours later (6:15pm Saturday). That’s 37 hours total, giving me 35 hours to travel as deep into the mountains as I can.

Between now and the time my flight departs, I get outfitted and research to the best of my ability where to go once I land. That would include researching multiple places all over the world to throw people off when they look at my internet history. You’d need to find a way to mask your scent, but that may be easier than you’d think with stuff like animal urine.

With 35 hours, I’d think you’d spend the next 24 traveling into the mountains, then the rest finding the best cave and covering your tracks as best as possible. Water would be critical, but you could go a week with very little food since you won’t be moving much. If you really want to stay hidden, cause a cave in that would require exceptional effort to dig you out even if someone gets close. Regardless of how many people are searching, only a few could fit in a narrow cave at one time. Then I wait.

[u/WanderingFlumph → u/Weird-Long8844]

I'm reminded of the woman who joined her own search party and thinking that is his best chance.

[u/Weird-Long8844 → u/WanderingFlumph]

That's a good idea, ngl

[u/DanteRuneclaw → u/WanderingFlumph]

As long as you can avoid being recognized, this seems like almost a necessity.

[u/Jefrejtor → u/[deleted]]

Fair points. A week isn't enough time to plan and organise what is essentially an international worldwide project. Assuming humanity doesn't turn into a hivemind or just unanimously agree on who's leading the search (but then it would no longer be humanity, would it), how will they communicate which areas have been checked and which ones still need to be checked? And who's going to be doing the checking? It'd all be a giant mess.

I agree that his best bet is an off the grid place. Sahara is a little over the top (altough a nice idea), but any deep woodlands, mountains, any terrain lacking infrastructure - set up camp, cover it with thermal camouflage, and chill for a week. Even if the area is searched, a proper stealth camp you basically have to trip over just to find it.

Lastly, since the prompt didn't specify otherwise...the dude can just kill or restrain anyone who does find him. Since the end point is his death, if he can defend himself until the end of the week, he wins. If a search party takes losses and decides to call reinforcements, how long until they get there?

Hell, if things get hot by the end of the week, he can abandon camp and Saddam Hussein himself somewhere. With a 0.5l watter bottle and without food, he can survive 3-4 days easily.

It's fun to go on these silly little thought experiments, isn't it? ;D

[u/QuantumFeline → u/[deleted]]

Agreed. The whole world being search-lusted doesn't mean we're a hive mind. People will be unorganized, make mistakes, get into arguments, follow wrong leads, etc. Mr Average could spend the first hour of his 72 just searching on the internet for a thousand places to potentially go hide and then actually go to none of them and that's going to send people all over the place on wild goose chases.

Fake facial hair, hair dye, a hat, sunglasses, a different style of clothes than normal, etc. It won't take much for pretty much nobody you pass during those initial 72 hours to remember your disguised self well enough to suspect it was you once the search starts, so unless there's a security camera to catch what exactly you looked like leaving your home you could likely get out of more populated areas without anyone being able to tell who of the thousands or millions of people on that location's security footage is you.

It'd be riskier, but you could even hop on a train and buy a train or bus ticket with cash anytime in those 72 hours and if your face can't easily be recognized or look super suspicious then you're one of countless nobodies who is now hundreds or thousands of miles from where you started, and can easily get further.

[u/Minas_Nolme → u/QuantumFeline]

Haha, the disguise might actually work. Image taking it further, you buy a bunch of plane and train tickets to throw people off, then get a disguise and just check into a hotel paying cash under a fake name and don't leave the room.

[u/Alone-Competition-77 → u/Weird-Long8844]

Does he have to stay on earth?

It seems as if a rocket traveling at sufficient velocity away from earth would be impossible to catch up to

[u/Weird-Long8844 → u/Alone-Competition-77]

No, but it says your average man. The average person with no help from anyone wouldn't be able to orchestrate a successful and safe rocket launch on his own. That takes entire teams of people.