3 ms·

It would obviously be possible, since we have CPUs now but once lived in caves. You can work backwards from "Semiconductor fabrication", which (I guess) would

It would obviously be possible, since we have CPUs now but once lived in caves. You can work backwards from "Semiconductor fabrication", which (I guess) would look something like: Microfabrication > Computation > Manufacturing > Electrical Engineering > Chemical Engineering > Metalworking > Power generation > Basic tools As to how long this would take, that feels very speculative. Did anyone print a copy of Wikipedia?

mrweasel 3y ago
> Did anyone print a copy of Wikipedia? Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_Wikipedia
- Ringz 3y ago
  „The bound paper volumes, each running 700 pages, represented a fraction of the 7,473 total volumes necessary to render the encyclopedia's extant text on that date.“ So, there are some missing volumes. And they don't print the pictures.
  - silisili 3y ago
    It would be interesting if we could tag wiki articles as 'vital' or some such for these reasons. Then one could filter by this and save/print. Or maybe a 1-10 scale. Of course, there'd be disagreement over which things got said designation, so some criteria would have to be established up front.
radicalbyte 3y ago
> It would obviously be possible, since we have CPUs now but once lived in caves. That's a big assumption. The modern world was built in easily accessible fossil fuels. We've used basically all of the easily accessible oil and a lot of the easily accessible coal. Without an easily accessible surplus it's hard to go from agriculture to modern society.
- ajuc 3y ago
  We also dug out millions of tons of useful materials out of ground, purified them and concentrated them in cities and along roads etc. We cleared forests on most of continents to let people do farming there. In Eastern Europe at least the biggest limit on farming and state-building in early middle ages was clearing the forest for farming. It was the biggest energy expanditure for people there, and it took hundreds of years to get to a state in which most of the land is available for agriculture. If the apocalypse was quickly over - we'd get to continue from that point without spending all that energy again. If it takes 50 years or more - most of Europe would be one huge forest again. Depending on the kind of apocalypse all you'd need to do might just be to scavange for usable solar panels/wind turbines/car batteries and starting agriculture in the places that are still available. Or you'd need to start from scratch, but then we're talking centuries.
- Iulioh 3y ago
  I'm curious on how easy would be to with solar with the knowledge we have now in material science
  - lm28469 3y ago
    Impossible, you wouldn't have any of what's needed to build a solar panel. No rare earth, no plastics, &c. they're all byproducts of the virtually free fossil fuel we had at the begging of the industrial revolution. You could find oil oozing out of the ground in some places
    - LeoPanthera 3y ago
      A "solar panel" does not have to be a photovoltaic panel. A much simpler panel can heat water to use in a steam turbine.
      - lm28469 3y ago
        We probably wouldn't even be able to source iron ore at that stage, let alone process it to make any kind of useful turbine, but let's say you make a working steam turbine from wood and clay, a DIY solar powered steam turbine is quite a few steps before modern CPU
_trampeltier 3y ago
It's not the same. Now a lot of raw materials are hard to reach and deep down in the ground, since the we took all the easy stuff already.
- nothercastle 3y ago
  But they are already out and processed you just need to obtain them and maybe recycle

mrweasel 3y ago

> Did anyone print a copy of Wikipedia? Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_Wikipedia

Ringz 3y ago
„The bound paper volumes, each running 700 pages, represented a fraction of the 7,473 total volumes necessary to render the encyclopedia's extant text on that date.“ So, there are some missing volumes. And they don't print the pictures.
- silisili 3y ago
  It would be interesting if we could tag wiki articles as 'vital' or some such for these reasons. Then one could filter by this and save/print. Or maybe a 1-10 scale. Of course, there'd be disagreement over which things got said designation, so some criteria would have to be established up front.

radicalbyte 3y ago

> It would obviously be possible, since we have CPUs now but once lived in caves. That's a big assumption. The modern world was built in easily accessible fossil fuels. We've used basically all of the easily accessible oil and a lot of the easily accessible coal. Without an easily accessible surplus it's hard to go from agriculture to modern society.

ajuc 3y ago
We also dug out millions of tons of useful materials out of ground, purified them and concentrated them in cities and along roads etc. We cleared forests on most of continents to let people do farming there. In Eastern Europe at least the biggest limit on farming and state-building in early middle ages was clearing the forest for farming. It was the biggest energy expanditure for people there, and it took hundreds of years to get to a state in which most of the land is available for agriculture. If the apocalypse was quickly over - we'd get to continue from that point without spending all that energy again. If it takes 50 years or more - most of Europe would be one huge forest again. Depending on the kind of apocalypse all you'd need to do might just be to scavange for usable solar panels/wind turbines/car batteries and starting agriculture in the places that are still available. Or you'd need to start from scratch, but then we're talking centuries.
Iulioh 3y ago
I'm curious on how easy would be to with solar with the knowledge we have now in material science
- lm28469 3y ago
  Impossible, you wouldn't have any of what's needed to build a solar panel. No rare earth, no plastics, &c. they're all byproducts of the virtually free fossil fuel we had at the begging of the industrial revolution. You could find oil oozing out of the ground in some places
  - LeoPanthera 3y ago
    A "solar panel" does not have to be a photovoltaic panel. A much simpler panel can heat water to use in a steam turbine.
    - lm28469 3y ago
      We probably wouldn't even be able to source iron ore at that stage, let alone process it to make any kind of useful turbine, but let's say you make a working steam turbine from wood and clay, a DIY solar powered steam turbine is quite a few steps before modern CPU

_trampeltier 3y ago

It's not the same. Now a lot of raw materials are hard to reach and deep down in the ground, since the we took all the easy stuff already.

nothercastle 3y ago
But they are already out and processed you just need to obtain them and maybe recycle