Thank you everybody, it's been very insightful and encouraging to read all this. I've mostly just been reading all these replies and thinking it all over. Anyway, I've left this discussion with this general consensus summed up in ten points:

1. Take a quality map and compass, rely on them more so than electronics. (GPS is nice as a tool, but I've always kept my use of it to scale. It's nice for getting a UTM coordinate of where I am and where I want to be and translating that onto a paper map, but total dependence on the device is foolish.)
2. Know that I'm out there on my own, and act accordingly.
- also, don't be surprised by some loneliness, or need for outside stimuli. Ideally seek said stimuli by the feedback from nature, and less electronic noise-makers (my preference).
3. Don't be an idiot/drunken fool.
4.Leave an itinerary, and clothing description with friends or family, and instruct said friends and family to relay this information to the authorities should I fail to return within an acceptable timeframe (24 hours was suggested).
- I really liked Bill's idea of selecting a perimeter zone within the destination to remain within, thereby giving some freedom to roam, but also limiting myself to a searchable zone that can be communicated to SAR.
5. Topo maps are always a plus when going off-trail because they can be used to navigate away from potentially deadly terrain features.
6. Use my brain. If I wouldn't normally hang out on a cliff face alone, I likely should't backpack there as well.
7. Recognize that I alone am and shall be responsible for my own choices, actions, and safety.
8. Stop. Stop to check the map, stop to think, stop when I feel lost. Blundering on is bad.
9. Be aware. This is why I dislike ipods and iphones,they generate a bubble of ignorance around many of their owners. Said bubble, generated either electronically or simply through stupidity could be at best idiotic and at worst deadly in the woods.
10. Be prepared.

Finally, two quotes from my personal hero have definitely been useful to me while preparing myself:
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

I might have some nice trips, I might have some lousy ones, but it will be greater to try despite the risk of potential failure than to simply hang up my hat because I can't get a buddy. That would be choosing a nightmarish life lived shaking in cowardice, threatened by the mere specter of risk.

"Speak softly, and carry a big stick"
Behave quietly and thoughtfully, but be prepared to take action should the occasion arise.