GetDotted Domains

Viewing Thread:
"What skills have we lost?"

The "Freeola Customer Forum" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.

Tue 17/02/04 at 16:21
Regular
"Going nowhere fast"
Posts: 6,574
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.
Tue 17/02/04 at 18:57
Regular
Posts: 2,774
Well, basically i think we'd have to revert back a few steps.

Taking the bricks as an example. Bricks are a luxury. Without the makers of the bricks, we'd simply have to revert to mud and clay.

Many things in our lives are luxuries that are just a few steps more advanced than the natural thing.
Tue 17/02/04 at 16:21
Regular
"Going nowhere fast"
Posts: 6,574
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.

Freeola & GetDotted are rated 5 Stars

Check out some of our customer reviews below:

Thanks!
Thank you for dealing with this so promptly it's nice having a service provider that offers a good service, rare to find nowadays.
Just a quick note to say thanks for a very good service ... in fact excellent service..
I am very happy with your customer service and speed and quality of my broadband connection .. keep up the good work . and a good new year to all of you at freeola.
Matthew Bradley

View More Reviews

Need some help? Give us a call on 01376 55 60 60

Go to Support Centre

It appears you are using an old browser, as such, some parts of the Freeola and Getdotted site will not work as intended. Using the latest version of your browser, or another browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera will provide a better, safer browsing experience for you.