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Why We Need Technology Ratchets
A lot of things keep me up at night – everything from the trivial (“did I remember to brush my teeth?”) to the to the profound (“does it matter?”). But recently, I’ve been plagued more than usual in the wee small hours by the challenge of developing sustainable and resilient technologies.
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Posted by CygnusX1 on 03/13 at 02:32 PM
It can be troubling to think about post apocalyptic scenarios. I think we all have contemplated these worrying things on occasion, as indeed we should. I remember way back in the 70's watching a BBC apocalyptic sci-fi series called "Survivors", that portrayed a startling and frightening image along the theme of "back to basics humanity". A biological man-made catastrophe leads to humanity all but wiped out overnight, leaving no power or utilities, or the technologies we all rely upon.
From here on our surviving characters are required to band together and scrimp and scrape and try to rebuild a life for themselves with notably no technical skills whatsoever. If I remember correctly there was one guy they encountered who could actually build a primitive methane generator for minuscule electric power. Yet they could not stomach his tendencies to his philosophy of rebuilding the human race by impregnating all women he encountered asap, (smiles ah yes it is all coming back to me now!)
The portrayal of these lacks of skills was kinda unique for this type of TV show and age. Alas it all went downhill after season two, so we all stopped watching it. (The story was also remade and re-presented only recently by the Beeb, although I did not care to watch it this time round for some reason?)
I favour George A. Romeo's cynical yet astute observations of human nature and surviving struggles. Yes zombies are involved, but the point really is that humans will tend to group together to serve their own purposes of survival, and readily drop all loyalties at the first sign of trouble, often leaving the real hero's to take the fall.
I do think we have enough technological ratchets in place despite all this negative thinking, its just that not being far enough on the ladder we don't see it or appreciate it? It is a wonder how biologists, chemists, and especially physicist's pass their skills and learning and intuition to their students even in a single generation, this is without contemplating what would happen to these skills post apocalyptic. Post catastrophe one could posit that all these skill sets would mean relatively little or nothing at all : a worse case scenario?
One thing is for sure, this contemporary knowledge of information processing and digitization using simple binary signalling and logic functioning will survive. Post apocalypse no one will be attempting to reinvent the CRT or early TV electronics. On the plus side no more engine management software for your cars either : whoopie! (not that many mechanics understand these things even now). Yet everyone will be an expert to some degree on Nintendo Wii, MS Office, windoze and especially those pesky diverse word processors : Ah I can see us all sitting comfy round the log fire debating these things even now.
Pleasant dreams!
;0]
Posted by EE on 03/17 at 05:39 AM
This is a problem inherent particularly in any ultra specialized field. In some fields of scientific research, there are literally only a handful of people, or just one, who know their stuff, because it requires rare special aptitude and lifelong dedication to the research.
When those individuals pass away, decades may pass until someone continues the work. The next link in the chain may not be as competent and it may take half of their career just to get to the point where the last one left off, and even so you\'re not guaranteed progress. Depending on the quality of record keeping by the predecessor, you may not be able to reconstruct the research fully, lacking the exact research methods and thinking style; you certainly can't become another Newton by reading his writings.
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