[jyl]

The humans/hunter discussion got me thinking. How well would modern man cope with the conditions faced by early man? I mean, Homo Sapiens the primitive hunter-gatherer, before any technology or civilization.

Now, this obviously depends on which modern man - the sedentary obese one who drives his 8,000 lb truck three blocks to hunt down a bucket of KFC, or the hardened Navy SEAL trained in survival and unarmed combat. So I thought, fine, let's see how each Pelican rates their chances.

Here are the rules. Please read them carefully, as our test will be unforgiving.
1. You will have all the equipment with which early man arrived. That is, NOTHING. Naked, shoeless, no knife, no tools, no fur or skins, empty handed. You know how you step out of your morning shower? Like that. (Okay, you can assume your eyesight is good, without need for glasses. Theory being, there would have been no books and computers to ruin your eyes.)
2. You will have, however, all the skills, experience, and knowledge of modern man. Your personal specimen of modern man. Hope you were a Boy Scout.
3. Your job is: PICK THE HARSHEST ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH YOU PERSONALLY COULD SURVIVE. Alone. Indefinitely.

Let me be the example. I'm empty handed and naked, but somehow have 20/20 vision, cool! I have done a fair bit of backpacking and lots of fishing and paddling, am decent at making things from sticks, have passing familiarity with bow and arrow, can swim, but am no sort of survivalist and have never hunted.

So: I pick, for my maximum survivable environment, a coastal temperate zone, like the US West coast, where I could gather shellfish, spear finfish in the streams, make rock blades capable of cutting branches from the forest, and eventually make myself shelter, weapons, and a kayak.

I think I'd have a 50% chance of surviving there. A harsher environment - the High Sierra, the Great Plains - I don't think I could make it. Africa, our birthplace - I don't know what it is like, but the fast things with big teeth make me skeptical.

See how this works? Want to play? Where would you be able to survive? Why did you choose it, how does it play into your skills?