Shall we make up a few?

[anidawehi]

In the spirit of reviving the island concept...  Just me, one other person and three items?

I would choose an Air Force SERE instructor as my companion.  Because there are few people in the civilized world better trained to deal with being abandoned on an island than one of these folks, and as an added bonus they come with built in entertainment, what with all the crazy stories they can tell.

My items?  A leatherman, which handily encompasses many tools in one and is thus immensely practical, a large, well trained dog, and as much rope as I can carry.

I'd be concerned about medical supplies and knowing what I should and should not eat but that's what the SERE instructor is for, the dog is for protection/hunting/companionship/comfort, the leatherman is just darn useful, and rope?  You ALWAYS need rope!

As for the mad scientist thing... 

Fantasy: Sarah Monette's Melusine world to hang out with Mildmay.  He's just awesome and DAMN if he and Felix don't need someone to smack their heads together sometimes... although it would be great to pull cons with Locke Lamora and Jean from Scott Lynch's books too...

Alternate reality: I would be Tim Drake's shadow... and girlfriend if he let me*.  Sure I'd have to deal with Batman's ... Batmaniness, but it would totally be worth it and I'd get to chill with Dick Grayson too, which would be pretty great.

Sci Fi: Wash, from Firefly, because if I were around the thing that I'm denying happened wouldn't have happened and there would be little Zoe+Wash babies running around and everyone knows that's what the 'Verse needs.  Plus he's funny.

* Okay, so he's a little too young for me, but if it's an alternate reality I can just jump to when he's older right?  ... Right?

[Mattador]

If I'm really in the spirit of the experiment... then unless we say a laptop and the necessary equipment to power it from solar (none of which I actually have), for me, it would probably be three books.

Or the biggest notebook I could find, the best mechanical pencil I could find, and one book.

Which book, that's the truly traumatizing question.  Snow Crash is my favorite, but not endlessly re-readable.  I've read Ender's Game more than any other single book, but I don't want to be alone on an island with it.  I'd want a book that could make me feelm like I wasn't stranded on an island, that would come as close as possible to fulfilling my need for human company.  When I'm alone in my apartment for too long, I tend to put on Ocean's Eleven in the DVD player for just that purpose...

Um.

Now I've stumped myself.

[mocknot]

Hmm, well, I can keep myself entertained with very limited supplies (example: I wove my boss a crown out of ticket stubs over several slow days at work), but I'd still want my pencil case/sketchbook. Since other people've taken care of the cutting and tying things, I'd also want a comprehensive illustrated encyclopedia of tropical flora/fauna. Hopefully this would keep the trial and error aspect of figuring out what to eat and/or run away from to a minimum.

[AndrewJ]

Hmm, well, I can keep myself entertained with very limited supplies (example: I wove my boss a crown out of ticket stubs over several slow days at work), but I'd still want my pencil case/sketchbook. Since other people've taken care of the cutting and tying things, I'd also want a comprehensive illustrated encyclopedia of tropical flora/fauna. Hopefully this would keep the trial and error aspect of figuring out what to eat and/or run away from to a minimum.

There's a rule of thumb for food: if you see a monkey or ape eating something, you can probably eat it. Birds, however, are not good guides to edibility, because there are substances which will poison mammals which birds can eat safely (forex, like reptiles, birds are immune to capsaicin. Artifical grape flavor, on the other hand . . .)

For running away, my rule is that if it's bigger than me, or has sharper teeth than me, or has its babies with it, I avoid it.