'2nd 'Evolution'

[Alistar7]

and they were not that large either, honestly do you think we, the normal everyday people would even get the same warning certain people would? Do you really think the govt would give us warning of an incoming nuclear strike if that were to happen? Rather than cause mass hysteria they would put their own plans into effect and leave us to fate.....

Love the little saying in your sig BTW, caught it before and found it very amusing to say the least.

Anything else on my "just woke up" rambling? lol

 

[DrPizza]

An interesting aside to this conversation, some have speculated that IF there were an Atlantis that had a lot of technology (compared to other society's technology) and it sunk, the technology could very well have been lost. It seems like I watched a show about this on PBS or someplace.

But basically, as suggested someplace above, imagine the sole survivors were a group of people in the right place at the right time (at a Jerry Springer taping). They would pass down stories about cars, etc. to their kids, who would pass that knowledge down... it would evolve into a myth type of story over time. The collective audience of the Springer show that survived would probably be incapable of building a car, or even describing very well how one worked, should they want to put it to paper.

On the other hand, from a random population sample, you may have enough people with enough science/math background to at least describe experiments and to start us out at 19th century or better levels. (We certainly would begin believing the earth was the center of the universe again.)

I really think that we wouldn't fall that far behind in science and math knowledge... We'd be knocked back a few decades, maybe even 100 years, but I doubt any more than that.

Things that would be lost forever: Shakespeare, etc.

 

[grant2]

Civilization would be lost as we know it. Humans may eventually get back to 17th or 18th century technology. There is a big fly in the ointment of recovering the lost technology. Much of the advancement of the Industrial Age depended upon easy access to coal and finally oil. Recall that the first oil wells in PA were essentially collecting SURFACE pools of oil, as this oil was consumed we had to begin drilling. The same with coal, initially it was just rock found laying around that burned. Now all of this easy access high density energy sources have been consumed. The generations attempting to recover our lost technology will not have easily acquired energy sources. This may make recovery even to 18th century levels difficult if not impossible.

I agree we're hooped as far as using petroleum as an energy source, but that won't hold us back for long!

The next race of man will direct its efforts to developing nuclear energy, solar energy, wind energy. In the meantime, they will get by using biomass. (fuel made from corn & all that)

 

[oSReApEr]

Originally posted by: Alistar7

While I am on this little rant I feel obliged to include a few words about why it took so long for us to reach the level we are now. For centuries the Roman Catholic Church controlled almost all "scientific" fields with some rather strange guidelines. No experiments or advancements were pursued that did not abide by the Bible as it was interpreted at the time, and any that were found to not correlate were dismissed irregardless. The origin of life was not a question to be examined by their "scientists", that "fact" was already "known". Remember what happened to Galileo, while he was not the first to observe the fact that the Earth was not the center of the universe, he was labeled and tried as a heretic for his science due to the time he lived and the control the church had over science and society. Granted they did have to finally admit he was was in fact right and removed that label in a public apology, although that did not happen until the 1980s

. How much was lost when a new discovery was dismissed because it did not coincide with what the Bible claimed? How much FARTHER along would we be if that were not the case? Remember how far and how fast we have advanced in only 100 years, from horse and buggy and the pony express to moon landings and email......

This is by far the greastest forum ive ever read. Also, Alistar you have made a very valid point in saying Catholics are at fault for holding technology back. I mean, before Galileo was brave enough to prove to everyone (Including the church) that the Earth was not in the center, most people were brainwashed into it was. This brings up a very important question. How far could we have advanced if Religious restriction was not an issue. Would we be able to span the edges of space, Establishing colonies on planets that you and I have never heard of, or would we be dead simply because we were to advanced (Recalling Terminator, and Matrix) for our own good. This question will probably haunt me for the rest of my life, but we should never dwell on the past, we can only alter the future.

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
this is one of the most interesting threads ive read on AT...dont have much to contribute except everything i wanted to say has already been said and with better support...keep up the convo guys

Ditto...

 

[Kadarin]

Is an oil-based mechanical/information technology the only direction human civilization can go? Take a look at Western civilization's roots, and there's a long train of cusp events that pointed civilization in the direction it's headed now. Some examples: The Spartans holding off Persia at Thermopylae. The fall of the Roman Empire. Christianity. Charles Martel defeating the Moors at Potiers. The Reformation. The American Revolution. World War II. What if....?

If it weren't for Christianity, would we still be slogging in the mud stabbing each other with swords, or would we be piloting starships by now?

 

[Nithin]

Originally posted by: ITJunkie

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
this is one of the most interesting threads ive read on AT...dont have much to contribute except everything i wanted to say has already been said and with better support...keep up the convo guys

Ditto...

I wasn't expecting more than a couple of answers when I started this thread. This is cool.
Very interesting ideas.

 

[LawrenceHeffernan]

Technology should be able to recover quickly, In the dark ages, technology and science was considered heracy, all the scientists were burnt, leaving us back at the middle ages, which wasn't really any more advanced than the Roman Empire, or the Greeks, Egyptians, etc. If civilisation was destroyed, with no records, It shouldn't take more than a Millenia to rebuild or technology, we could skip the things that were counter productive (Pointless territory wars, the French, Cigarettes). World hunger could be cured (not too many people to feed), so you've got the making of a Utopia.

One thing, wars are good at creating technology, I mean, Guns, Missiles, Tanks, Nuclear Weapons/Power, Radar wouldn't exist if it wasn't for war, Aeroplanes and Submarines would probably not exist or be common. Without Navies being devloped, the compass probably wouldn't be found.

 

[JCE10]

Before we even start rebuilding, survival would be the first goal. I see people first figuring out how to obtain food and shelter. Once that has been established, people will inevitably set up a form of heirarchy and that will greatly effect how long it would take to rebuild civilization.

It seems that the general consensus thus for is that there will be no religious restrictions. However, what if this event actually brings people closer to God and creates an even more religious society. We may see a repeat of the past.

In order to take advantage of what we already know, the first step would be to have what we remember written down and organized and check over for correctness. If all paper and form of writing is lost, passing down the knowledge orally would prove a problem. People born after the incident may not learn or understand the full picture.

RossGr point was very interesting. The world has changed and what would we start to use as fuel for fire? Natural resources aren't just everywhere in these times. Wood as the only source may prove a problem.

The scenario is a bit unrealistic though. If a comet were to destroy all signs of man made tools, then how could humans have survived in the first place. I would hope something would remain still. Would a comic big enough to devastate the planet also effect all electronics in the world?

 

[0roo0roo]

would recover relatively quickly probably..since the base knowledge could be slowly rebuilt. no where near as long as how we originally took. i read somewhere that our ancestors used the same tools unchanged for hundreds of thousands of years..and then change was like exponential.

 

[Livin4Speed]

Perhaps to help answer the original question, as I believe it was intended, I think the scenario should change a little. His original intent, as some have garnered, is based purely on our current human intellect. All tools, books, equipment is out of the equation.

So perhaps since it is a far stretched theory anyway it is necessary to take it further so that we truly examine the intellect only portion. Let?s continue with the concept of the earth being obliterated. But it?s a future date and we had actually found a ?earth like? planet that could support human life, and had sent a crew of lets say 20 men and 20 woman, hand picked by the folks at NASA of course. Their space vehicle suffers from a fire and therefore they have lost all of there previous possessions.

Now you have a true beginning from scratch, based strictly on our current human intellect.

With that concept in mind, and obviously with some well educated individuals I believe we would be able to reach the 18th Century within approx 100 years. I only put that long of a time based on my initial quantity of people, as previously mentioned some projects (Building Factories, Science Facilities, Infrastructure, etc?) just takes a certain amount of ?man / hours? to complete. Unfortunately even with educated people involved in the equation you are going to have a certain loss of knowledge from generation to generation for the first few generations. Let?s face it how many of you remember everything single thing and would be able to impart ?all? of your knowledge onto your children prior to dying without the help of current text books. Not to mention we as humans tend to be fallible when ?remembering? information correctly and passing it on.

 

[buleyb]

Nothing Kevin Costner couldn't save us from

 

[martind1]

keep your water-worldish responses to yourself, jerk.





I think there are two key factors missing here. if all books and such were destroyed the few survivors would have to immediatly begin recording anything/everything they even vaugely know. perhaps they don't know how to launch a rocket into space, but merely recording the fact that it was done would be important enough to future genereations.

the second key factor would be that we could only regain our current place by increasing the population. repopulating the earth would be priority 1. especially considering the few poeple on earth right now that are geniuses in their fields. (1 stephen hawking for every 2 billions people) etc.

 

[pcdeatherage]

Why do we HAVE to build it back like it was? Perhaps the survivors will have enough sense and NOT want to build it back like it was. Knowning what they know, perhaps the survivors will teach living off the land in harmony with nature and all that...

But alas, there will be those, or those that will become those that want more (for man always wants more) and you will want and take what someone else has and sooner or later that someone else will have to stop you. Survival is an instinct. Greed probably too...

 

[Livin4Speed]

"the second key factor would be that we could only regain our current place by increasing the population. repopulating the earth would be priority 1."


I think this would be an interesting issue on its own merrit, who is the lucky guy who has to try and convince women that they need to become breeding machines, forget there jobs and raise dozens of children. It would be humorous if the only women to survive were a feminist group. :Q

 

[martind1]

here is my pickup line:


"hey babay, want to help rebuild mankind?"

 

[Nithin]

but since contraception would not be available in the beginning, no convincing would be necessary.

 

[CarrotNose]

Will Jeff Probst be around to offer incentives to the people that perform the best?