3 ms·

Obviously it doesn't actually matter that much but sometimes I do wonder how I'd fare in a nuclear holocaust scenario and it's depressing to think how useless m

Obviously it doesn't actually matter that much but sometimes I do wonder how I'd fare in a nuclear holocaust scenario and it's depressing to think how useless my professional skills would be. Idealistically I'd be grabbing PC components wherever I could find them and frankensteining machines together, making networks to connect bunkers... but in reality we'd probably not even have power. It's so far down the hierarchy of needs.

jacquesm 3y ago
> Idealistically I'd be grabbing PC components wherever I could find them and frankensteining machines together, making networks to connect bunkers... You'd be better off reading a book on hydroponics and subsistence farming if you were determined to see it through. And have a way to exit stage left available in case it all doesn't work out.
- ddmf 3y ago
  So you're saying my experience in growing mushrooms may not have been a waste of time :)
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Who knows, it may become your most valuable skill one day. But let's hope it's something else instead.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  The only actual skill of value in a post apocalypse scenario is convincing people around you to not murder you for your meager possessions. Humanity without a state has no qualms about murdering a member of an out group, and it can even be a bonding activity for the in group. Left to our own devices we form tight knit, small scale communities which are very protective of each other but extremely hostile to anything else. There's no "society", no "technology", no "time to build something". Look at the Primitive Technology guy on youtube; Even very basic metal is impossible without industry, so no metal ax, no metal parts for anything. Stone tools are incredibly inferior to even basic modern tools. The spare people and time required to develop and work an industry to start building ANYTHING more than a weaved basket or stone ax requires the recreation of agriculture, except nearly none of the survivors of any situation will understand anything about growing plants, and we don't have a hundred thousand years of human history practicing while being nomadic hunters. Your gun won't protect you. Your stores of food will run out. Your knowledge of anything that isn't "how do I sustainably produce one million calories a year with only my bare hands" is useless.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    There is a good book called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides Earth Abides, the most the lead character manages to pass on of all of our technology is the (fire)bow/arrows. Everything else is lost, even though it takes years for everything to run down.
dylan604 3y ago
How much would those components be affected by EMPs?
suction 3y ago
[dead]
at_a_remove 3y ago
I'm Gen X, which means that we were, as a group, routinely traumatized as kids with killer bees, acid rain, a frank exchange of nuclear warheads ... suddenly sex was death and we weren't sure of the parameters. But the nukes were always in the background and when you review the media of the period it was like seeing the same guy in the background of different movies, always looking at the camera. I had read Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, really the prototype of this kind of thing, about a limited nuclear event and what would happen. There's a great bit: On the ninth day after The Day, Lavinia McGovern died. This, too, had been inevitable ever since the lights went out and the refrigeration ceased. Since Lavinia McGovern suffered from diabetes, insulin had kept her alive. Without refrigeration, insulin deteriorated rapidly. Not only Lavinia, but all diabetics in Fort Repose, dependent on insulin, died at about the same period as the drug lost its potency. Now, insulin is much more shelf-stable, but you get the idea. I was struck. So imagine a tween who had drawn up lists of "who had what," where we were going to meet, and general plans for your limited nuclear war. I did have the relatively bright idea of trekking to this particularly cold and hidden spring as a kind of natural refrigerator for wrapped food and batteries and the like. All of that eventually faded after the Berlin Wall came down. I still think about it, from time to time, as "What would I be good for besides slave labor?" They made us get pretty handy with electronics for my degree and the rest of my sciences were well-rounded with chemistry and some very basic civil engineering. I ran amok in TechShop before they folded, so the shop stuff I can get by with to some degree. In terms of computing's value, I think the two biggest areas of overlooked utility would be packet radio for a low-bandwidth internet, and having the foresight to have offline copies of Wikipedia, scans of the Gingery books, and so forth, connected up to a PC with line conditioned solar power. With dozens of the same PC or laptop, because those parts wear out. Otherwise, yes, IT probably won't be a big part of your average scavenger horde hellbent on reenacting parts of The Road Warrior.

jacquesm 3y ago

> Idealistically I'd be grabbing PC components wherever I could find them and frankensteining machines together, making networks to connect bunkers... You'd be better off reading a book on hydroponics and subsistence farming if you were determined to see it through. And have a way to exit stage left available in case it all doesn't work out.

ddmf 3y ago
So you're saying my experience in growing mushrooms may not have been a waste of time :)
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Who knows, it may become your most valuable skill one day. But let's hope it's something else instead.
mrguyorama 3y ago
The only actual skill of value in a post apocalypse scenario is convincing people around you to not murder you for your meager possessions. Humanity without a state has no qualms about murdering a member of an out group, and it can even be a bonding activity for the in group. Left to our own devices we form tight knit, small scale communities which are very protective of each other but extremely hostile to anything else. There's no "society", no "technology", no "time to build something". Look at the Primitive Technology guy on youtube; Even very basic metal is impossible without industry, so no metal ax, no metal parts for anything. Stone tools are incredibly inferior to even basic modern tools. The spare people and time required to develop and work an industry to start building ANYTHING more than a weaved basket or stone ax requires the recreation of agriculture, except nearly none of the survivors of any situation will understand anything about growing plants, and we don't have a hundred thousand years of human history practicing while being nomadic hunters. Your gun won't protect you. Your stores of food will run out. Your knowledge of anything that isn't "how do I sustainably produce one million calories a year with only my bare hands" is useless.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  There is a good book called https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides Earth Abides, the most the lead character manages to pass on of all of our technology is the (fire)bow/arrows. Everything else is lost, even though it takes years for everything to run down.

dylan604 3y ago

How much would those components be affected by EMPs?

suction 3y ago

[dead]

at_a_remove 3y ago

I'm Gen X, which means that we were, as a group, routinely traumatized as kids with killer bees, acid rain, a frank exchange of nuclear warheads ... suddenly sex was death and we weren't sure of the parameters. But the nukes were always in the background and when you review the media of the period it was like seeing the same guy in the background of different movies, always looking at the camera. I had read Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, really the prototype of this kind of thing, about a limited nuclear event and what would happen. There's a great bit: On the ninth day after The Day, Lavinia McGovern died. This, too, had been inevitable ever since the lights went out and the refrigeration ceased. Since Lavinia McGovern suffered from diabetes, insulin had kept her alive. Without refrigeration, insulin deteriorated rapidly. Not only Lavinia, but all diabetics in Fort Repose, dependent on insulin, died at about the same period as the drug lost its potency. Now, insulin is much more shelf-stable, but you get the idea. I was struck. So imagine a tween who had drawn up lists of "who had what," where we were going to meet, and general plans for your limited nuclear war. I did have the relatively bright idea of trekking to this particularly cold and hidden spring as a kind of natural refrigerator for wrapped food and batteries and the like. All of that eventually faded after the Berlin Wall came down. I still think about it, from time to time, as "What would I be good for besides slave labor?" They made us get pretty handy with electronics for my degree and the rest of my sciences were well-rounded with chemistry and some very basic civil engineering. I ran amok in TechShop before they folded, so the shop stuff I can get by with to some degree. In terms of computing's value, I think the two biggest areas of overlooked utility would be packet radio for a low-bandwidth internet, and having the foresight to have offline copies of Wikipedia, scans of the Gingery books, and so forth, connected up to a PC with line conditioned solar power. With dozens of the same PC or laptop, because those parts wear out. Otherwise, yes, IT probably won't be a big part of your average scavenger horde hellbent on reenacting parts of The Road Warrior.