feivel – a person would move according to his tangential velocity, not his angular velocity. Angular velocity is only pertinent to circular motion, and he would no longer be spinning – that’s the point. A person’s tangential velocity at the surface of the earth is almost 30 km/sec! I’d call that flying, not “slowly rising”…
But you’re right that gravity isn’t required for friction. Normal force is required for friction. While it’s true that normal force often comes from gravity, it doesn’t have to! It’s another one of these forces that doesn’t really exist in it’s own right…