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I recently told a friend to watch the trailer for the upcoming film The Day After Tomorrow and it got us musing. Well I did most of the musing out loud while he stood there nodding at me.
It's a bit like King's - The Stand. Suppose something drastic happened and the majority of people were wiped out, leaving those behind to cope with rebuilding life. That people would cope is not in question, just how well they would cope is.
Now in The Stand the 'good' people eventually got the electricity on. Side tracked here - I believe the 'bad' people were in Vegas and they never had problem with the electricity. Does this mean that the majority of the Sparkies went to Vegas?
Back on the main track now. How would it pan out in reality. Eventually parts would be needed to fix the electric generators but how would you make the parts? The parts are made in factories which need electricity to drive the machines. Same with the Gas supply - we would need to keep the stations, pipes, rigs etc. working. How?
Infact most of the factories would be useless to the greatest degree.
What about the basic communications system - the telephone and Royal Mail.
What about health care? Imagine needing something amputated but there are no doctors.
Eventually all big steel ships would be unseaworthy and our ship builders are already on the verge of extinction. What then? No or little international trade.
What about vehicles - same as ships (except for my type of car which just plods on regardless) including the loss of fuel to drive them.
How about closer to home. Anyone here grow their own food? Would you know how to grow your own food while still cultivating seeds for your next crop. How about slaughtering your own meat. It's a fair bet that a lot of people would become vegetarians before they would try this.
What about clothing and footwear. Can anyone knit or weave cloth? Can you shear the sheep first, clean the wool, dye and comb it out? Do you know a good cobbler who can tan the hides before shaping the leather, cutting it and putting it all together to make you a boot?
How about just basic housing? Okay, you may know a brickie or two but can they actually bake the bricks? Joiners who put up the joists don't know how to make them. they just use pre-designed ones which come out of a factory ready to slot together. How would you make the glass for your windows or the furniture inside your home.
Eventually all your electrical goods would deteriorate. No washing machines or television.
You can't just say we would learn the skills, not just like that. Who would you learn them from bearing in mind that the majority of people have been wiped out. The chances of someone skilled enough, surviving to show you each of the skills needed, would be very slim.
Now I may be a techno-phobe but I like my creature comforts and cannot imagine my life without them. However, we have lost the ability to communicate properly with each other, to pass down stories from generation to generation.
The above examples are straight off the top of my head so what skills have we already lost which we don't know about and would not know about until we realised we needed them.
T'would be a scary life.
At least beer shouldn't be a problem as there are plenty of little home breweries around the country.
It's a bit like King's - The Stand. Suppose something drastic happened and the majority of people were wiped out, leaving those behind to cope with rebuilding life. That people would cope is not in question, just how well they would cope is.
Now in The Stand the 'good' people eventually got the electricity on. Side tracked here - I believe the 'bad' people were in Vegas and they never had problem with the electricity. Does this mean that the majority of the Sparkies went to Vegas?
Back on the main track now. How would it pan out in reality. Eventually parts would be needed to fix the electric generators but how would you make the parts? The parts are made in factories which need electricity to drive the machines. Same with the Gas supply - we would need to keep the stations, pipes, rigs etc. working. How?
Infact most of the factories would be useless to the greatest degree.
What about the basic communications system - the telephone and Royal Mail.
What about health care? Imagine needing something amputated but there are no doctors.
Eventually all big steel ships would be unseaworthy and our ship builders are already on the verge of extinction. What then? No or little international trade.
What about vehicles - same as ships (except for my type of car which just plods on regardless) including the loss of fuel to drive them.
How about closer to home. Anyone here grow their own food? Would you know how to grow your own food while still cultivating seeds for your next crop. How about slaughtering your own meat. It's a fair bet that a lot of people would become vegetarians before they would try this.
What about clothing and footwear. Can anyone knit or weave cloth? Can you shear the sheep first, clean the wool, dye and comb it out? Do you know a good cobbler who can tan the hides before shaping the leather, cutting it and putting it all together to make you a boot?
How about just basic housing? Okay, you may know a brickie or two but can they actually bake the bricks? Joiners who put up the joists don't know how to make them. they just use pre-designed ones which come out of a factory ready to slot together. How would you make the glass for your windows or the furniture inside your home.
Eventually all your electrical goods would deteriorate. No washing machines or television.
You can't just say we would learn the skills, not just like that. Who would you learn them from bearing in mind that the majority of people have been wiped out. The chances of someone skilled enough, surviving to show you each of the skills needed, would be very slim.
Now I may be a techno-phobe but I like my creature comforts and cannot imagine my life without them. However, we have lost the ability to communicate properly with each other, to pass down stories from generation to generation.
The above examples are straight off the top of my head so what skills have we already lost which we don't know about and would not know about until we realised we needed them.
T'would be a scary life.
At least beer shouldn't be a problem as there are plenty of little home breweries around the country.
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By the way the stand is a great book.
The USA is the center of the universe, didn't you know?
Just ask George Bush, he'll clear up any doubts you may have. And if you disagree with him, he'll invade your house.
Just ask George Bush, he'll clear up any doubts you may have. And if you disagree with him, he'll invade your house.
I loved reading The Stand (especially since I'm a Stephen king fan) but the only thing they did bother me about that book was it's entire lack of information about any place OTHER than the USA. Even though it mentioned the fact that the pague spread across the enitre US of A, that doesn't mean that it had any chance to spread across the entire globe and effect certain third world counrties or Islands such as Australia. How do we know whether any transport ships, planes containing the virus actually reached any country outside of the American continent? They could have crashed mid flight and left England and the rest of europe uneffected from the plague until some idiots decided to investigate the matter.
I don't like buttering
My new World party would be called the Anti-Buttering League
My new World party would be called the Anti-Buttering League
Whoa! That would be me then. I make excellent sandwiches but I can't make a pencil either :)
This is like Hitchikers guide... Arthur Dent becomes the 'sandwich maker' because that's all he knows how to do. He can't even make a pencil.
I like to watch plenty of Ray Mears, and read plenty of my SAS survival handbook, for the day when the world spontaniously combusts.
No but that's why we have have computers
Like D'uh
Like D'uh
I don't think it'd be so hard to catch up far enough to live reasonably comfortably.
The more people are around, the more there are to specialise in the specific skills to regenerate stuff. Sure, learning from scratch wouldn't be easy, but if you've got all the equipment, all the books and stuff, and maybe one or two fairly skilled survivors, you could learn eventually.
If, on the other hand, there weren't so many survivors, then the remaining resources would last much longer anyway.
Once you got the electricity going well, I'd expect most other things to fall into place.
And I bet it'd be a lot of fun finding out. So if you are planning a nuclear holocaust, can I stay in your bomb shelter? :^p
The more people are around, the more there are to specialise in the specific skills to regenerate stuff. Sure, learning from scratch wouldn't be easy, but if you've got all the equipment, all the books and stuff, and maybe one or two fairly skilled survivors, you could learn eventually.
If, on the other hand, there weren't so many survivors, then the remaining resources would last much longer anyway.
Once you got the electricity going well, I'd expect most other things to fall into place.
And I bet it'd be a lot of fun finding out. So if you are planning a nuclear holocaust, can I stay in your bomb shelter? :^p
As long as there's beer someone can get drunk and explain everything. :-D
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