Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

80000hours.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 250 posts

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

#171

Post by nostrademons »

mateo1 wrote: post #152
Georgelemental wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you are dead, your actions are not going to change anything (because you won't be performing any actions). So if you are going to plan, you can only plan for the case where you survive

You can also allocate all this effort into preventing whatever apocalyptic scenario is likely to happen, but that's a lot less self-centered and forces you to accept uncomfortable truths about yourself and your place in society. It's much easier to daydream about being constrained by technical problems alone, and if you are realistic that's not going to be the biggest problem in any post-apocalyptic scenario. We'll s…

I'm always entertained by the optimism of people that think they can prevent whatever apocalyptic scenario is likely to happen, but that'd force you to accept uncomfortable truths about yourself and your place in society.

Collapse is inherent in any system that undergoes unchecked exponential growth, and is more a function of ecology, population, game theory, and millions of years of human evolution. If it's going to happen, there's nothing that you as one of the 7+ billion humans alive on earth today can do to prevent it.

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

#172

Post by hef19898 »

bombcar wrote: post #139
mdorazio wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent post is probably referring more to energy resources. Gas and diesel degrade fairly quickly and unless you live in the middle east, aren't just flowing out of the ground anymore. Solar + BEVs might be an option, but only if the apocalypse scenario didn't involve an EMP, otherwise you better know your way around diesel engines and making biodiesel + live close to a hydroelectric plant.

Almost all power is generated by heating water into steam, which can still be done by burning almost anything. It won't be very efficient, but you can do it - so traveling to the nearest coal mine/plant may be an effective energy source.

The most easiest thing, so, would be a Sterling engine then. Something I have to read up again, I'd love to build one with my kids. After all, it was the machinery we did hand-drawn technical 2D drawings for back at university before we moved to CAD.

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

#173

Post by nostrademons »

avgcorrection wrote: post #109
NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Boom and bust cycle? There’s been one boom and now there will be one bust. Unless you have some fancypants geoengineering idea which will stabilize the climate and put fossils back in the ground.

There've been plenty of booms and busts before, eg. the late Bronze Age collapse, the fall of the Roman Empire, most Chinese dynastic transitions, the destruction of North American civilizations by colonialism. This boom just happens to be bigger than the ones that came before.

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

#174

Post by oldsecondhand »

notriddle wrote: post #146
ars wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can dig wells, practice permaculture, organize a farm, keep sheep, spin yarn, blacksmith, prep lumber, fire pottery and glass, hunt, fish, manage woodlands I'm very confused by why you think this is sustainable - this type of life uses FAR FAR FAR more resources than modern living. It only works with a low population. England for example basically cut down every tree it has in order to sustain this type of (old) li…

> It only works with a low population. That’s the point. Killing lots of people lowers the population, but it doesn’t stay low. Over time, the population will always approach the carrying capacity, so the only way to permanently lower the population is to make the carrying capacity lower.

Going back 300 years in tech won't reduce the carrying capacity permanently. We'll either rebuild modern technology or will cut out enough trees to cause an environmental catastrophe.

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

#175

Post by greenpresident »

PostOnce wrote: post #166
gavmor wrote: post #9

If I were to take one book with me "down into the bunker," as Dartnell puts it, I'd hands-down take with me the Bosch Automotive Handbook[0], a phenomenally dense and thorough text covering not just cars, but their constituent parts--and their constituent parts' constituent parts--all the way down to the materials. It has wonderful tables of data on the properties of various materials (from advanced plastics and allo…

I know of a book that similarly impressed me, though I've not yet seen the one you refer to, although it won't be quite so deep: The reprinted-under-many names book from Germany in the 70s? called variously: "How Things Work", "The Way Things Work", and more and published by Simon & Schuster, Paladin Press, and others Searching for C Van Amerongen will bring it up, although I think it is by multiple authors. https://…

„Wie funktioniert das?“ and it’s various versions are amazing books for teenagers interested in tinkering too.

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

#176

Post by omegant »

gavmor wrote: post #9

If I were to take one book with me "down into the bunker," as Dartnell puts it, I'd hands-down take with me the Bosch Automotive Handbook[0], a phenomenally dense and thorough text covering not just cars, but their constituent parts--and their constituent parts' constituent parts--all the way down to the materials. It has wonderful tables of data on the properties of various materials (from advanced plastics and allo…

Can’t find it in amazon. Who is the author? Is it an old edition?

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

#177

Post by mszcz »

PostOnce wrote: post #166
gavmor wrote: post #9

If I were to take one book with me "down into the bunker," as Dartnell puts it, I'd hands-down take with me the Bosch Automotive Handbook[0], a phenomenally dense and thorough text covering not just cars, but their constituent parts--and their constituent parts' constituent parts--all the way down to the materials. It has wonderful tables of data on the properties of various materials (from advanced plastics and allo…

I know of a book that similarly impressed me, though I've not yet seen the one you refer to, although it won't be quite so deep: The reprinted-under-many names book from Germany in the 70s? called variously: "How Things Work", "The Way Things Work", and more and published by Simon & Schuster, Paladin Press, and others Searching for C Van Amerongen will bring it up, although I think it is by multiple authors. https://…

Oh, I had a different book by that name How Things Work by David Macaulay. I loved it as a kid and a couple of years ago bought two used versions so that my son can experience it ;)

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

#178

Post by animal531 »

gavmor wrote: post #9

If I were to take one book with me "down into the bunker," as Dartnell puts it, I'd hands-down take with me the Bosch Automotive Handbook[0], a phenomenally dense and thorough text covering not just cars, but their constituent parts--and their constituent parts' constituent parts--all the way down to the materials. It has wonderful tables of data on the properties of various materials (from advanced plastics and allo…

The 1978 book Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle had the same idea. In the book the Earth is struck by a comet which pretty much wipes out large areas of the planet.

Being from before the internet, one of the characters collects a whole range of books for topics such as tools, engineering, farming etc.

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

#179

Post by hackernewds »

nostrademons wrote: post #164
occz wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For how long would cars really be practical in a "down in the bunker"-scenario, though? There wouldn't be any more fuel produced, probably, and cars require a fairly high standard of roads which also would be lost after not too long. Personally, I would probably bring the equivalent book on bicycles, which I speculate would be the vehicle of choice for the end of the world. If anyone knows the name of such a book, I…

Just looking through the table of contents [1] - this is not just for cars. It's basically a textbook on mechanical engineering, applied to something that will be common and very scavengable in a post-apocalyptic world. The first 159 pages is basically a quick-reference for applied physics; the next 50 pages is mathematics; the next 100 pages is material science. They don't get to anything car-specific until page 460…

Why was this published? Bosch does not even make cars

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

#180

Post by csomar »

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…

> 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.

Most people will quickly assemble in groups/tribes/families. People can realize danger, and even independents will know when it's time. Chaos will be transitory and most people will be unaffected; however, supply lines will be limited to neighboring friendly tribes/villages. As a result, shipping things from the other side of the world will be expensive and slow. Products will make their way slowly, so you'll always get the end product but inefficiently.

Post reply on HN