Depends on how severe the apocalypse is. Right now, you could scavenge your way through civilization and not run out of new computers to use / fix, ever. If y

Depends on how severe the apocalypse is. Right now, you could scavenge your way through civilization and not run out of new computers to use / fix, ever. If you were stuck in a cave and had 40 years of your life left, I doubt you'd ever see one. Computers are cool but food takes priority. Not enough hours in a day. There's a lot we take for granted in civilization. Once those layers are peeled back you're competing for territory with animals and scrounging for survival. Being able to manipulate bits will be extraneous, and really only emerged because of the sheer number of people that are alive right now. With 8Bn people, you get a lot of geniuses. A better question would be: "how long until you could have a 24/7 source of electricity?"