Getting humanity to bounce back faster in a post-apocalyptic world

Post by NegativeLatency » Fri, Jun 10, 2022, 11:06 PM UTC

ethbr0 wrote: post #32

CJefferson wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, materials will be important. We probably can't "do the same again", so much of the Industrial Revolution (from my reading at least) was started with the huge amounts of wood, then easily accessible coal, then "spending" coal to get access to deeper coal. If you started from scratch, there isn't really any easily accessible coal left.

One thing not to discount is that if we needed to rebuild civilization suddenly... a lot of us are going to be dead. And consequently, those surviving and rebuilding are going to have the residue of a civilization that supported many more people to work with. Cast iron might be relatively rare, but would it be relatively rare for 1/1000th as many of us?

Post by 01100011 » Fri, Jun 10, 2022, 11:09 PM UTC

hansor wrote: post #99

Total apocalipse is not possible (Earth is so large that it's impossible nuke EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE. But if this is just experiment "what if" those are thing that I would suggest to do: - Forget about computers and programming and gadgets - DO NOT STAY IN BUNKER, INSTEAD FIND FRIENDS! - Focus on FARMING as team - Scavending for potatoes, grain etc - for seeds! - FARMING - FARMING - FARMING - FARMING - FARMING - H…

Post by avgcorrection » Fri, Jun 10, 2022, 11:23 PM UTC

Barrin92 wrote: post #37

I think the more interesting question than how to reinvent some technological gizmos is how to reinstate governance. It's handy to know how to build a solar panel but it isn't worth much if someone hits me on the head with a club five minutes later. It's kind of funny to me that so much post apocalyptic writing is so overly concerned with technology when technology without much wisdom was what likely caused the apoca…

Post by VectorLock » Fri, Jun 10, 2022, 11:30 PM UTC

bluefirebrand wrote: post #97

hh3k0 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, aren't virtually all "easily" available resources already dried up to such a degree that highly advanced/specialized equipment would be needed to extract whatever is left?

After an apocalypse, if you survive and society has collapsed, resources will be abundant. You will just have to strip materials from cars and buildings instead of digging them out of the ground.

Post by avgcorrection » Fri, Jun 10, 2022, 11:38 PM UTC

NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #30

throwaway892238 wrote: post #27

Weird take. Sure, you could try to re-build what you had before the apocalypse. Or you could build a new world that isn't the one that just plunged everything into chaos. If our technology wasn't so good, the world wouldn't be as populated, we wouldn't need so many resources, there wouldn't be so many ways to poison the earth, and the earth would be habitable and sustainable for millennia. After the apocalypse, I wan…

This viewpoint is appealing, but the thing is: natural selection says it isn't possible in the long term. For every person like you, who thinks s/he knows how things would be better for the environment and others, and how to get there (at least approximately), there is another person who doesn't give a shit and who will do long-term damage in exchange for short-term gains all day long. That person will out-compete yo…