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How would you survive society's collapse?
The recent HN post about what would happen if all technology suddenly disappeared was interesting ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=526458 ), but I think a more pertinent question is how best to survive a catastrophic break down of public infrastructure and governance. Possible causes might be (civil) war, epidemic, or space weather ( http://alturl.com/eo5 ). Technology and knowledge aren't going to disappear, but the power grid is broken, materials and supplies aren't getting distributed, the Internet and wired telecommunication are gone (at least on a global scale), and governance has probably heavily suffered. What would you do?
- khafra 18y agoPreparation and disaster-specific learning can only take you so far, but http://collapse.reddit.com http://collapse.reddit.com is a serviceable overview of that part. http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com and http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/ http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/ have a more nuanced view of social and economic collapse; 1950s style "nuclear armageddon" style survivalism is unlikely to suffice in the real world. For the last nail in the coffin of "guns and independence" style survivalism, try the War Nerd's treatment of the topic: http://exiledonline.com/war-nerd-apocalypse-never/ http://exiledonline.com/war-nerd-apocalypse-never/. I wish I could figure a way out of his unpalatable dilemma: convincingly join a large church in a rural area long before the collapse, or die shortly after it happens. (edited for tone--I'm an undeservedly arrogant bastard everywhere, but it only comes across as charming face to face)
- tectonic 18y agoDespite the oddly condescending tone of your reply, I appreciate the links. Thanks. I didn't know about collapse.reddit.com, but I shouldn't be surprised that there is a forum dedicated to this topic.
- tjic 18y ago> governance has probably heavily suffered We managed to settle a continent back when government spending was about 1% of GDP (as compared to 30% today), so government mostly breaking down wouldn't strike me as a big problem. Heck, Somalia has functioning water distribution companies, cell phone companies, etc., even without any government.
- tectonic 18y agoMy larger concern would be coordination of food distribution from farms to cities.
- anamax 18y agoWhat can you do for farmers and distributors?
- randallsquared 18y agoMy guess is that vast numbers of first-worlders would die waiting for someone else (the government, the rich, whoever) to save them. Somalia was better than much of the rest of Africa by a lot of measures around 1999-2001, but things haven't gotten better since then, partly due to the destabilizing tactics of its neighbors, who seem to prefer tyranny or kleptocracy to anarchy, there.
- david927 18y agoContingency planning makes all the difference in the world. When OPEC oil crisis hit in the 70's, only Shell Oil had done contingency planning for such an event, and it was the only major oil company who had a backup. So my feeling is: have a contingency plan. It doesn't have to be elaborate and it doesn't have to be time-consuming or expensive. Just do a thought experiment about what you would do and make sure there are no barriers in that plan. For example, have some water and food that won't spoil. It's not hard to do, and it's generally a good idea. Things like that. No one thinks society will really collapse. But companies like Shell Oil know that a tiny amount of planning for any contingency is just smart.