I don’t think it’s absurd. Maybe overly optimistic, but life has found a way to make it to where it is today. I have no reason to not believe that humans would

I don’t think it’s absurd. Maybe overly optimistic, but life has found a way to make it to where it is today. I have no reason to not believe that humans would still be around and kicking (even some of the Dinosaurs survived to today...). Yes most of the governments would be gone—natural law would take over. But in the end, there are going to be survivors. Some of them are smart. Most of them can talk, read, write and so forth. If you view a nuclear war as completely destroying the planet, I think that’s the problem. Even with all the (known) present nuclear warheads on the planet, we don’t have enough to destroy every meter of land on the planet. That would require deliberate and pinpoint precision, most likely not going to happen. The Earth is just too big. There will be technologically advanced places that will persist—no matter what. And they’re the keys to gradually returning the planet to where it once was. It’s not going to be a quick process, it’s going to happen on the scale of 10+ years, but it will get done. If this was not the case we can forget about going to Mars or even the Moon and just call it impossible.