Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lake
Yeah, that always a big issue. However, I think the biggest issue is the incredible degree of specialization modern society has. Take a look at the last major collapse, which was the fall of the Roman empire. I was reading a while back that during their height, just before the fall, they had a high degree of specialization amongst the citizenry, which actually worked against them when everything fell apart. The people who actually did best were those with broad skillsets. It also meant that, with the mass die off of those with very specialized skills, you'd have a huge loss of knowledge as well, since knowledge usually transfers better between those with broader skillsets than those with narrow ones. I think if we had another major collapse like what Rome saw, you'd also see almost the exact same thing happen a second time with large groups of people dying off because their skillsets were very specialized, and thus they were unable to survive or adapt to the complex and challenging new order to things.
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Well, the one big difference I think is the literacy level and the quantity of books available. If my town were to make it, there are 1/2 fully stocked libraries plus a science museum (no to mention a major university) I can raid and I live in a smallish town (pop 60k) I expect bigger towns have even more resources like this. Even without power I can still read paper books and get what knowledge I need.
I do not recall any apoc stories off hand that put a high value on libraries though...