Ok, i bet everyone here knows about Brotherhood of Steel. Those folks don't just collect old tech and hoard it, they also create their own tech better suited for post-apocalypse times, like Brotherhood Armor in Fallout 2, Prydwen airship, their own design of power armor (T-60 etc), experimental crops, X-111 compound, etc.
I've spent considerable amount of time considering real-world post-apocalypse situations, and for a long time already i am firmly convinced that most technologies in use today will not be appropriate, and in most cases - will not even be usable at all, in real-world post-apocalypse situation (further abbreviated to IRL PAS).
Note: no matter whether one is sure or not that IRL PAS is inevitable in observable future, nobody can deny such a possibilty. After all, those dinosaurs got wiped out, who said similar kind of trouble couldn't happen once again.
So.
Which particular technologies which are in use today and are crucial to survival of societies - will need to be transformed or, perhaps, completely re-invented IRL PAS?
What changes in them you think are the most important ones?
How difficult and how long will it take to bring about such changes, and who, in particular, could be the people and institutions who could make it happen?
Is it realistically possible to create IRL PAS technologies post-factum, or is it only possible through proper research and development effort beforehand?
I'll start with giving one example of my own considerations of the sort: water purification.
Most of the world today just uses tap water, which get purified using industrial-grade facilities. Those can only function as long as electrical grid is providing power, and long-term - only as long as spare parts, qualified personnel and consumable reactives are all readily provided, usually from far away places, to the facility.
IRL PAS, those facilities will no doubt shut down. Water-borne diseases are quite unacceptable thing if we talk maintaining any stable civilized society. So, local forms of water purification will be required. Ones which do not require complex chemicals, industrial-scale facilities and highly qualified specialists.
I guess it's very possible to do it, though! Whenever fire is used to cook and/or to heat people's homes, traditionally lots of energy goes away right through the smoke stack. Adding quite simple system of few pipes and heatable water reservoir close to the fire will allow better capture of fire energy for home heating - and if done right should also produce significant amounts of distilled water (through evaporation and recondensation). I think this can be created and maintained quite easily even after full scale of IRL PAS happen, but only if users have sufficient supply of matherials (primarily metals). In the long run, proper metal works will be needed to have this kind of water purification operational.
Now metal works, i'm not sure about. Obviously scrap from existing global technological civilization can do for centuries - possibly longer, - for IRL PAS survivors (which will most likely be only a small fraction of present-day populations). But sooner or later it'll run out. Ores are not as rich as they were when industrial revolution started... Pretty much no almost pure-iron ingots anywhere around (back in 19th century, there were places with lots of those, very easy to collect and process without advanced machinery).
Any metallurgists around here? =)
I've spent considerable amount of time considering real-world post-apocalypse situations, and for a long time already i am firmly convinced that most technologies in use today will not be appropriate, and in most cases - will not even be usable at all, in real-world post-apocalypse situation (further abbreviated to IRL PAS).
Note: no matter whether one is sure or not that IRL PAS is inevitable in observable future, nobody can deny such a possibilty. After all, those dinosaurs got wiped out, who said similar kind of trouble couldn't happen once again.
So.
Which particular technologies which are in use today and are crucial to survival of societies - will need to be transformed or, perhaps, completely re-invented IRL PAS?
What changes in them you think are the most important ones?
How difficult and how long will it take to bring about such changes, and who, in particular, could be the people and institutions who could make it happen?
Is it realistically possible to create IRL PAS technologies post-factum, or is it only possible through proper research and development effort beforehand?
I'll start with giving one example of my own considerations of the sort: water purification.
Most of the world today just uses tap water, which get purified using industrial-grade facilities. Those can only function as long as electrical grid is providing power, and long-term - only as long as spare parts, qualified personnel and consumable reactives are all readily provided, usually from far away places, to the facility.
IRL PAS, those facilities will no doubt shut down. Water-borne diseases are quite unacceptable thing if we talk maintaining any stable civilized society. So, local forms of water purification will be required. Ones which do not require complex chemicals, industrial-scale facilities and highly qualified specialists.
I guess it's very possible to do it, though! Whenever fire is used to cook and/or to heat people's homes, traditionally lots of energy goes away right through the smoke stack. Adding quite simple system of few pipes and heatable water reservoir close to the fire will allow better capture of fire energy for home heating - and if done right should also produce significant amounts of distilled water (through evaporation and recondensation). I think this can be created and maintained quite easily even after full scale of IRL PAS happen, but only if users have sufficient supply of matherials (primarily metals). In the long run, proper metal works will be needed to have this kind of water purification operational.
Now metal works, i'm not sure about. Obviously scrap from existing global technological civilization can do for centuries - possibly longer, - for IRL PAS survivors (which will most likely be only a small fraction of present-day populations). But sooner or later it'll run out. Ores are not as rich as they were when industrial revolution started... Pretty much no almost pure-iron ingots anywhere around (back in 19th century, there were places with lots of those, very easy to collect and process without advanced machinery).
Any metallurgists around here? =)
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