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I'm worried, What happened to the lessons of the last century? I had a grandmother who lived through both world wars and lived to own and use a smartphone.
Much important history has faded from living memory. We mock, harass and intimidate our historians and philosophers.
We for get the optimism and courage of our parents' generation who stood up for civil rights, equality and social justice. We look the other way as hard-won rights are eroded. We sit idly by while we let tyrants exploit us and dismantle our democratic structures and rob us of our sustenance.
At times like these I turn to popular music for inspiration and wisdom. I would like to share one particular retrospectively enthusiastic piece I've recently discovered from more optimistic times and I'd like to think it hasn't been in vain quite yet. We are still the human race.
It's by Montrose (also a Scottish town) and is called Space Station #5 and goes like this:
Start, with the sun
And move on out
The future's in the skies above
The heavens unfold
And a new star is born
Space and time makin' love
Now, I'm sure that's the sort of thing Homer Simpson had on his 8 track in his car back in the day.
I don't care. It's much better than war.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 13 2022, @08:30AM (7 children)
We both know that's not going to happen in this timeline. My main concern is, can we rebuild a technological civilization after this? I've had nightmare-scenario images of a world permanently locked into Iron Age technology, simply lacking in the concentrated and discoverable resources needed to jumpstart another Industrial Revolution afterwards. Species-wide extinction would be preferable to that.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 13 2022, @08:46PM
There's a lot that can be done with steam power. I don't see why it shouldn't be possible to go from a great steam age to a digital, solar-powered renaissance. Cars and jet engines might not happen again, and that wouldn't be a terrible loss imho. Mass travel over long distances would still be possible with trains.
This all could be for the best.
A big factor will be the quality of knowledge that survives from this era. If we can figure out how to help future humans regain the knowledge of present society, that could work against the nightmare scenario. Maybe we should be printing out hard copies of wikipedia and burying them across the world.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 13 2022, @09:02PM
Steampunk can be cool, have a look at Mortal Engines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plA7N05y81M [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 15 2022, @08:25AM (3 children)
what are you talking about?
we'll always have wood to burn hot enough to work metals, and a lot of metals are easily accessible at the moment (cars and other shit).
which means early 20th century technology is easily accessible (and from there it's 100 years to today).
by "easily accessible" I mean you just need to start from stone-age technology with a couple of good books, and in one generation you should have a working steam engine if you're working with a moderately sized community.
I can understand having nightmares, but please try to use common sense in your waking hours.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 15 2022, @02:23PM (2 children)
Common sense? These are multi-generational city dwellers that don't know how to use a screwdriver, let alone *imagine* any kind of fabrication.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 16 2022, @03:54AM (1 child)
I do a bit of light carpentry actually :) Y'know, to keep up with the lesbian stereotypes?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 25 2022, @10:57AM
What's lesbian about a girl handling wood?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 15 2022, @03:06PM
Like what resource? As noted, even timber farming would get you enough energy for an industrial society. And solar cells, integrated circuits, etc aren't that hard to make even if you ignore that we would have massive supply of those things in the wake of a nuclear war.