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Which mythological world would you rather live in?
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In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it is against the law to open a soda bottle without
the supervision of a licensed engineer.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Hartree on Sunday January 31 2021, @12:28PM (5 children)
Yes, I was a Boy Scout. And a cold war kid aware that technological society could be heavily set back or effectively destroyed in a very short time.
I've thought about rebuilding technology enough to know that while the knowledge isn't that obscure, the interlocking human organizations in order to get the costs down (economics still applies) by wide exploitation of technologies so they're not so expensive and rare that only a few kings can have them is going to be a challenge. Each piece is pretty straightforward, but the shear number of supply materials you need make setting up the means of extraction at the needed scales a hell of a task.
Especially when you try to displace the existing power holders in those worlds. They may not have modern armies, but they have armies nonetheless. With that much of a base needed, you'll be upsetting the order of things in that world. There will be losers that won't like it. Your best bet would be to ally yourself with an existing power base.
And that's if the diseases and lack of modern medicine doesn't get you before you establish a high enough tech level to preserve yourself and your followers.
The operating idea here is that just because you could in principle, doesn't mean you want to be forced to implement it. Oh, I dreamed a lot about doing it when I was a kid. My biology teacher dad and I would commonly discuss how to reestablish both the food infrastructure and modern medicine. He was born in 1922 and before WW2 was going to med school and he'd seen a lot of the things we just don't see so much of now. Ever seen someone with rickets? Wasn't that uncommon then. Strep throat was causing death in a goodly fraction of those it was diagnosed in.
As time has gone by, it's not that I've grown older and wiser, it's just that I've grown older, more tired, and have more aches and pains. I'll take Ian Bank's Culture universe as a first choice.
If for no other reason that I'm sure I could get coffee in it without having to grow the beans first. ;)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday January 31 2021, @06:30PM (3 children)
Yeah, I was going with that you build the shit for a king as a given. I certainly don't wanna be one myself. Or at least that you have a dozen rifles that will shoot 300 yards accurately and folks who can use them before you piss anyone off. Bolt action with a spring-loaded magazine starting out but that'd be plenty to kill or at least route twenty times your numbers.
Not really worried about medical stuff. Yeah, they had more diseases but bottom tier antibiotics are relatively easy to work up and nothing would have immunity to them yet.
Oh, shit, I'd be ruined without coffee. I'd have to be hitting Africa pretty much first rattle out of the box. Can't be having with walking around decaffeinated.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Sunday January 31 2021, @07:46PM (2 children)
OK, but 20*12 is still only 240 you know. Run into just 250 orcs and you're toast. There were hundreds of thousands of the buggers running all over the countryside, remember?
Plus if you're thinking you can replicate Springfields quickly from a medieval start you're a better smith than I am, by a long shot. I figure I'd be doing well to get flintlocks going. Probably napalm and land-mines would be a better investment of time and resources. Or a 12 volt system for the castle.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 01 2021, @05:23AM (1 child)
Sounds like a helluva title for the introductory story to a new series/universe. I'd like to order my copy now!
(Score: 1) by Arik on Monday February 01 2021, @12:13PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 23 2021, @08:54PM
... this point.
Under a catastrophic technological failure we'd be unable to bootstrap most technologies again or within a reasonable time for one simple reason: The majority of the resources and the technology to map out new sources for those resources would be hard or impossible to come by.
Think about Cobalt for instance, or surface copper deposits. Sure there are mines you can find those in, but most of the 'close to civilization' ones have been mercilessly mined to the point where attempts to extract the resources with primitive forms of technology would be at best risky, and at worst suicidal to attempt. The deeper mines would require either a huge amount of physical manpower, or non-trivial respiratory technologies to travel deep enough to reach the remaining ore veins, assuming you had all the supporting chemicals to refine them one you got the ore out.
Hell, even just the wrong trade war could lead to a technological collapse if the stalemate between nations lasted too long.
Having said that, I think the current rush into space is an attempt on the world power's parts to eliminate that risk while also gaining dominion over the smaller nations by having orbital termination capabilities that will make the future of warfare 'you lose' for anyone without an existing space presence. We're not quite there yet, but the major players already have their shared dominion carved out, and will either merge or begin infighting once the influx of resources from the solar system are available to power the next war machine without reliance on diverse terrestrial sources by geographical or political limitations on commercial availability.