survivors 1975-77

"Steve Terry" writes:

: OK centres of learning based on books would have to be developed, as
: the monastery's were in the middle ages with people coming from miles
: around to study

Unfortunately, most of the books of the 20th century were printed on
wood-based paper that goes acidic and eats itself up, so by the 22nd
century, a lot of the world's books would be in bad shape even if idiots
hadn't used them for kindling in the meantime.

-Micky

"Steve Terry" writes:

: The warehouses supplying Halfords, etc, store them in dry charged
: state. Those would be the places to recover batteries from. I used to
: deal with one just west of Brighton, an Aladdin's cave of new car
: batteries.

It seemed to me when I saw the series in the '80s, that given the
drastically reduced size of the surviving population, they'd have been
better off breaking into libraries and getting books and journals on
alternative technology, like windmills, metalsmithing forges, and looms
designed for small isolated villages in developing countries, rather
than either trying to reproduce the vast industrial technologies of
scale that drive the modern densely populated world on the one hand, or
throwing up their hands in despair and adopting the quasi-medieval life
the original characters were trying on the other hand.

They were only kidding themselves that what they were attempting was a
sustainable medieval life. One of their rules was that they weren't
supposed to use anything they couldn't make themselves, but they relied
on modern metal implements even though none of them knew how to make
them. They all wore pre-apocalyptic clothes, since naturally none of
them knew how to make textiles from scratch, and they couldn't have
afforded the time, effort, and fertile land to grow fiber crops like
cotton and hemp anyway. If they'd lost access to modern metal
implements and clothes, they'd have been in a real tough spot, because
we're talking about people who couldn't even reproduce Iron Age
technology.

-Micky

"Micky DuPree" wrote in message
...
"Steve Terry" writes:

: OK centres of learning based on books would have to be developed, as
: the monastery's were in the middle ages with people coming from miles
: around to study

Unfortunately, most of the books of the 20th century were printed on
wood-based paper that goes acidic and eats itself up, so by the 22nd
century, a lot of the world's books would be in bad shape even if idiots
hadn't used them for kindling in the meantime.

That reminds me of a scene from The Time Machine (1960 version)

Roderick Stewart wrote:

Where would you get drinkable water in a dead city?

In the centre - a problem. But anywhere suburban, just look for a water
butt. A drop of bleach (or boil) and you're away.

Andy