Hello, my name is Toby and I do not shoot first.
That is my rule.
You may be shocked to see me here playing Fortnite.
This is not very on-brand, but don't worry because I will talk about some physics while we're here.
Physics comes later but first some context.
John Green, a person who I respect greatly, and have met once,
has a series on Youtube where he plays Fortnite as a pacifist,
hiding in bushes and only shooting in self defence.
I have thoroughly enjoyed John's videos,
but he is yet to succeed at his task of winning the game.
Today, as you may tell from the title, I succeeded in the pacifist style.
This is the story of how I said "no" to violence,
winning a solo victory with 0 kills, 0 building and 0 shots fired.
I learned everything I know about the game from John's videos,
which isn't much to be honest.
I barely know how to control the character,
and you can see just how gracefully I'm falling down to land.
The zero build humble brag in the title comes from the fact that I don't actually know how to build.
The footage you are watching is what I've managed to scrape out of the auto-saved replay feature.
The second half of this video will have the map display showing the number of surviving participants,
but for this first half of the replay it was exported without the map
and, since this was played a little while ago, the file became corrupted due to updates before I could export a new version.
Erm, I'm not very good at the camera angles here.
I don't know how to operate them.
Erm
But my tactic is to find somewhere to hide.
I went for this hill so I could have a vantage-point.
It was nice and high.
It's best to hide where you can see others but they cannot see you.
I've picked up this small gun to use purely in self-defence.
I will not fire this gun unless I am being shot at by another individual.
If you are unfamiliar with the game,
a company called Epic Games has forced one hundred people to live inside of a party bus
that they then have to jump out of, seeking refuge on an island where they fight each other to the death.
The last one standing is able to go free with their life.
It is a horrible and sad situation and there is a great deal of desperation born out of the desperate situation in which participants find themselves.
In this game a terrible storm surrounds the island
and over time the habitable part of the island gets smaller and smaller.
This forces individuals to get closer to each other
and means that it is unlikely I will be able to hide on this hill for too long.
I will run from the storm when I see it approaching.
I think that people here have been forced to act inhumanely by a culture which supports such actions.
One pacifist alone is likely to be killed instantly when encountered,
even if they do come in peace
as in such a tense environment as this, every movement is perceived as a threat.
The only real hope that a pacifist can have here is that they encounter other pacifists in the game.
Maybe I will find myself in the final moments face-to-face with John Green himself
and the two of us can emerge from our shrubs and unite in a dance, watching the storm claim us both in an act of defiance.
That's the philosophical aspect of it, I'm also just really scared of conflict.
Just a heads up that I do spend a reasonable amount of time sitting on this hill.
I'll put a time stamp to when it gets a bit more exciting but for now, grab a cup of tea or whatever, and sit back and I'll tell you some stories.
I can hear menacing sounds in the distance of other  people exploding each other it sounded like
but I'm gonna try and put that out of my mind for now and just stay calmly here on this hill.
Fortnite is such a quintessential part of Youtube culture at the moment,
as you may have seen in the highly enjoyable and well liked Youtube "Rewind" for 2018.
My channel recently passed one hundred thousand subscribers and I wanted to do a little something different to celebrate.
Some people jokingly suggested that it's time for me to earn my real Youtube stripes and upload a Fortnite video.
And here we are.
I assure you though that this is just a little fun celebration of sorts and you shouldn't expect any more Fortnite videos on my channel.
I heard a couple of footsteps there.
I hope someone's not coming to my hiding spot because I honestly don't have a plan B at this stage.
So while we are waiting for the others to kill each other
let's talk about an intersection of physics and pacifism.
This is a physics channel after all.
You will probably know about the number of famous physicists involved in the Manhattan Project,
based in the US to create the first nuclear weapons.
Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Enrico Fermi were some of the big name physicists involved.
Einstein, a person who was widely regarded as a pacifist, may have also been involved in the conception of the project.
In 1939, scientists came to know about uranium fission - the process which would be used in atomic bombs.
There were some great concerns that German scientists would use it to develop nuclear weapons
and so physicist Leo Szilard worked with Einstein to write a letter to US president Franklin Roosevelt,
which Einstein signed, urging the US to be the first to develop such a weapon.
By 1942, this push had become the Manhattan Project
By late 1945, the US used nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with devastating loss of life.
Apparently Einstein later expressed regret about his letter.
Einstein had originally justified his decision because of the greater danger that Nazi Germany would develop the bomb first.
In 1947, Einstein said "had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing".
This regret makes sense because Einstein was a pacifist at heart and believed that wars stood in the way of human progress.
His version of pacifism was one of preparedness.
He believed that we have no alternative but to act to encourage nations to be prepared against the perceived threats posed to them.
Einstein himself wrote this about his position:
"I did not say that I was an absolute pacifist, but rather that I had always been a convinced pacifist.
While I am a convinced pacifist, there are circumstances in which I believe the use of force is appropriate.
Namely, in the face of an enemy, unconditionally bent on destroying me and my people.
I am a dedicated but not an absolute pacifist.
This means that I am opposed to the use of force under any circumstances, except when confronted by an enemy who pursues the destruction of life as an end in itself."
I suppose this is my view of pacifism whilst playing Fortnite.
I will not seek out conflict, even if I were to see an easy target from up here on my perch.
But I do hold this gun in an act of preparedness.
Whether I am skilled enough to fire it is another question entirely.
I'm probably not
and this makes hiding also a smart decision for my own survival.
Ideally I would be hiding in a bush or behind a tree or something but as long as I stay reasonably still I'm not too worried.
There wasn't a convenient enough bush up here where I wanted to hide.
Human eyes are actually kinda bad at seeing stationary objects whilst scanning the field.
Human eyes are really good at detecting movement though.
The ability to detect movement is key for many animals, allowing them to detect the presence of predators.
When I look out across the Fortnite landscape, the only way I see other characters is through their movements,
which stand out against the static background.
So I'm trying to stay still or pivot slowly to reduce the chance of being seen.
It is kind of like hiding in plain sight in a way.
With each second that passes I get closer to my death.
The last time I played Fortnite, I also tried to hide out on this very hill but died by falling off the side and suffering a great fall.
I couldn't work out how to, like, open my, er, umbrella thing to soften the fall, erm,
so I could easily die like that again in the exact same way.
Or I could make it a little longer this time
Whether my death occurs in the game though, or afterwards, the fact is I have limited time.
Both options highlight the absurdity of conflict.
Humans do love to fight.
The game meets a need to squash others and emerge victorious.
I am not unaware of this aspect of human nature and it is good to realise it.
To quote Carl Sagan:
"It is far better to grasp the universe as it is than to persist in delusion however satisfying and reassuring."
Sagan had many great quotes.
He also said that "extinction is the rule, survival is the exception".
Many species over the course of history have gone extinct and many more will do so.
Extinction can happen naturally as the world changes but it has also been sped up in recent times
by human factors such as urbanisation and habitat loss.
It seems though that the rule for any species is indeed to eventually become extinct.
In a few billion years, the sun will use up the last of its hydrogen fuel and expand 250 times its current size.
There is no guarantee that even the most resilient species on Earth could survive this and for humans to continue to survive,
broadly speaking we would have to take action to become the exception.
Maybe it is inhabiting other far away worlds and developing a space faring species.
That's the grand scale but look around at the situation I find myself in and you will see this on the local scale.
One hundred people were dropped on this island.
99 of them will become extinct if you will and one will survive.
To become that exception you need to have something special about you.
Or a lot of luck.
I did have a little luck on my side in the fact that this hiding perch of mine was inside the safe zone and not in the storm for a good little while.
Also, nobody has yet run directly passed and seen me which means I can just sit here.
You can see the storm out in the distance getting closer.
It's purple and glowing and it has some elements that remind me of what is often portrayed in movies as a geomagnetic or a solar storm.
I don't know the exact origins of the Fortnite storm but maybe it does have a component of magnetic activity.
You might have seen earlier there were a lot of, like, bright purple streaks in the storm.
Er, so, maybe that is some charged particles, like electrons or protons that have made their way from the sun,
ejected in a solar storm, er, and made their way into the upper atmosphere of Earth where they may, er, interact with the atmospheric particles
through excitation or ionisation and cause some, you know, colourful displays and patterns.
I guess I won't know what causes it but it was a pretty sight, er, to look at before my impending doom.
Here's the part where the footage was able to be exported with the map and you can see how many people are left - 13.
In fact I can see someone over there in the distance building so that's a little stressful.
There they are flying off their structure down into the hills.
I'm currently outside the safe zone and the storm is gonna be shrinking soon so I need to move
er, and I need to get somewhere safe.
This is how I died last time, jumping off this ledge, so,
I, I'm kinda hoping it goes better this time.
I need to deploy a parasol at some point.
Yep
Good enough
Er, not the most graceful, I must say.
Er, in fact this whole section here I'm kinda running around like a headless chuck.
I, I have no idea which way to go, I'm going to wrong way.
Oh, I'm pretty certain I'm gonna die right about now.
Er, cos I'm extremely close to the storm and there's a hill on the other side of me so I'm stuck between a rock and an approaching storm.
I was very pessimistic, erm, during this part right here,
during this run, with each second that passes I'm kind of amazed that I'm still alive somehow.
Erm, I'm just running randomly around the mountain, looking for a nice bush to hide in
and take some shelter, not only from the storm, but from the people who can probably see me running and will come and shoot me.
I'm now inside the safe zone.
So then I go and make one of the worst decisions ever which is to run into this bush
which is actually outside the safe zone but I didn't realise at the time.
And I'm sitting in here just feeling incredibly stressed, erm, my blood's rushing with adrenaline.
And, you know, I'm thinking okay, I might be safe a little bit.
So I'll just sit here for a little bit, get nice and comfortable in this bush so no one can see my ponytail sticking out.
Err
And then this happens...
It's not in at all.
I'm losing health and now I'm, well, I don't know what to do.
I, er, that was my best spot, so I'm gonna have to run and find another bush.
It's kind of a miracle no one's seen me flailing about like this so far
I feel like this, this is just luck no one else was here building because like I said, I didn't have any plans Bs.
This looks like a good bush.
I'll retreat here for a bit
but it's still not in the next safe zone which you can see on the map as the white circle.
Top 8 though I think.
There's only 8 people left, er, including myself.
That's pretty good for someone who's done basically nothing so far.
Can hear gunshots in the distance.
Can actually see people over there building and fighting.
I'll just be a bush camper.
This is a technique I learnt from John Green.
He, er, seems to be an expert bush camper.
And I think that's a pretty good tactic to be honest.
I know I'm going to need to run soon.
We've got 15 seconds until the storm starts moving again.
I'm going to need to run towards that white circle to be safe
but I think I'll take my time.
I feel like my biggest threat at this point is someone seeing me running.
So, oh, there's footsteps.
There we go.
Where did it go?
I don't know what I'm doing.
Here's a nice bush.
Also not in the safe zone.
Can't see anyone else though. Coast seems clear.
My small inkling of hope is that bush over there.
As long as I can get there without anyone seeing me it's fine.
Oh God.
That was someone shooting at me.
I, this was a very tense moment.
Did, did someone shoot at me from up here?
I'm trying to see them.
Why are they still not shooting at me?
Did they, did they lose sight of me?
I mean, it's kinda obvious I'm in this bush.
Or did they get shot by someone else?
Who knows?
I guess it's a pure miracle that they didn't keep shooting
because that's probably my number one chance of death right there.
Er, somehow I've survived, so, erm
Just looking around to see where the others are.
They're up there.
I guess I have to assume everyone I see is in the exact same situation as me, right?
I, I can't assume that they are trying to kill me.
I can only, oh God.
I can only assume that they're a part of the corrupt power system trying to turn us against each other, to turn us into animals
and I have to assume that, like me they're, they're just trying to survive a horrible situation in which they find themselves.
I don't like those noises but somehow I'm in the top 3.
Oh God
Oh no...
I feel like one of them walked passed me just then.
So there's two people and me left in this game.
As long as those two kill each other, I'm good, I'm good.
I just stay in this bush.
There he is.
Remember, assume he's just like me.
He's just frolicking in the park.
Is something gonna happen up there?
I feel that as long as I stay here until the last minute I can.
Oh God
I guess their priorities are each other
and then they'll come after me.
Oh no
Oh no
I'm exposed
I'm completely...
I've got nowhere to hide
Except over here...
They're distracted, it's good, they're distracted
I don't even wanna look.
I'm just gonna keep my head down.
They won't see me if I do that and I don't wanna see them.
I don't wanna know what's going on.
I'm just gonna sit here and hope for the best.
Okay.
I don't even know what I'm hoping for.
I'm just hoping for the best.
And I'm just looking at the grass and trying to stay calm.
I'm very stressed.
Two
Oh my God
And this was the moment it happened.
This is my victory royale.
I don't know what that gunshot was.
I don't know if I accidentally shot myself or shot the bush after my victory.
I was so excited.
Right now, I'm actually running upstairs to tell my brother what happened.
This is his account by the way
so don't add this account thinking that it's gonna be me.
It's gonna be him.
Looks like the storm does eventually cover me
so even, you know, if you win by the rules that Epic Games have set out
and you actually, you know, do what they wanted you to do, you're still gonna end up in the storm
so I don't really see any good way out of this.
I did manage to get some footage through the replay
of, in hindsight, what happened to those other two players.
And so we can have a look at that now.
It's on a fast forward.
So, here was me running.
There was them, distracted by each other, building, building, something I don't know how to do.
Ermm...
They were pretty skilled to be honest.
Pretty menacing.
Err...
There's a lot going on.
Some shots.
One gets shot.
And the other just dies in the storm somehow so they must've had such low health
that even a little bit of time in the storm was enough to get them
and then they didn't have time to come after me.
I'm glad, because I, I had no defence policies really.
And so that was it.
That's how I won Fortnite as a pacifist.
Thank you for watching.
