Survival instinct

[Serifan]

Would we as a human race survive an event in which we lost all the things that we take for granted, Power, running water, heat.
Have we lost the true skills of survial because of our depedency on technology.

To be honest I myself would find it hard to survive. I could survive off supplies left over from an event which would last me for at least my lifetime but will I have the skills to teach my children to survive without them. Things could only last so long and without the proper teachings to the young would they be able to surive.

It is in Human nature that we have the will to survive the most amazing situations but would it be enough to rebuild socitey in a world where we have lost the basic nature of survival.

 

[TheWesDude]

well, there are quite a number of problems.

1) communication. without power, its pretty hard to let the city 50 miles away know you need something.

how long did it take the pony express to take something from NY to LA

2) Transportation. moving not only people around, but also commodities like food/water.

instead of being few spaces where certian foods are made, you would require farms almost everywhere growing food not only for them, but the people around them as well.

and then find a way to store and move that food around effectively.

3) food. right now its like 1 in 50 in the US is involved with farming. that would have to go up drastically as right now for the most part farms are not really local depending on where you live. how many farms you know of in NY state? how many people live in NY state?

4) jobs/professions. who gives a fuck if you are a world class computer programmer in C++, we dont have any fucking power to run a computer.

lots of jobs become trivial or meaningless, and lots of jobs that are trivial or meaningless now would become much more meaningful like blacksmiths.

 

[[PCE]el_Prez]

well, there are quite a number of problems.

1) communication. without power, its pretty hard to let the city 50 miles away know you need something.

how long did it take the pony express to take something from NY to LA

2) Transportation. moving not only people around, but also commodities like food/water.

instead of being few spaces where certian foods are made, you would require farms almost everywhere growing food not only for them, but the people around them as well.

and then find a way to store and move that food around effectively.

3) food. right now its like 1 in 50 in the US is involved with farming. that would have to go up drastically as right now for the most part farms are not really local depending on where you live. how many farms you know of in NY state? how many people live in NY state?

4) jobs/professions. who gives a fuck if you are a world class computer programmer in C++, we dont have any fucking power to run a computer.

lots of jobs become trivial or meaningless, and lots of jobs that are trivial or meaningless now would become much more meaningful like blacksmiths.

Luckily, I've been watching "The Colony" on the discovery channel. I'm now an expert in all Post-Apacalyptic survival areas. Plus, I own lots of firearms and am a bit of a deadeye.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Would we as a human race survive an event in which we lost all the things that we take for granted, Power, running water, heat.

Simple answer?

Yes. Mind you enough communities in this world exist without said things [Subsistence agriculture]. Particularly in South America, Africa, parts of Asia, Eastern Europe and the north American contintent. What ever if technology would dissapear tomorrow or not. Those people would go on. Actualy probably, they would do even better without "us" and the technological fetish.

And there are also enough people in the "modern" world that would manage to survive without technology we see as granted. People which own farms, work and live in rather small societies. They tend to be a lot more independ compared to those in towns and large urban areas.

But its all just my guess.

 

[SuAside]

sure we'd survive. losing power, running water and so on only means that many will die and that we'd need to get back to a wild west-ish type of living. (by wild west, i mean technology wise, not much else)

but humanity would survive easily.

 

[Guest]

My favorite film scene ever was when Kurt Russel used that satelite device to shut off every electronic/electric device on earth at the end of Escape from L.A. throwing back humanity to the stoneage. I don't know why, but somehow the thought of such an event appealed to something inside me. Sometimes I come to think that maybe a more simple, shorter and physical life might be better than the stressfull and hectic life which progress and technology has brought us. Look at wild animals for example, they have a relatively short life span, they are propably cold and hungry often and when they get hurt they tend to die but psychological disorders like for example Burnout Syndrome are virtually unknown within the animal kingdom. I think that humans, essentially a "higher" (or maybe not after all) form of animal, are not built for the life which we have brought upon ourselves. I used to have a job with a land surveying company in North Carolina. Compared to my job now it was rather physical work. You'd get your skin cut up by branches, had to take your afternoon shit with the moskitos and horseflies, whacked away at plant life till your hand bled and for fun we'd hunt after snakes with machetes and bush-axes. And after cutting 3000 feet of line while standing in a swamp with wet feet all day long you'd come home and feel tired, you'd feel beaten but man you felt good...

 

[JohnnyEgo]

Opposable thumbs are a wonderful thing. Humanity would survive just fine. Keep in mind that we have only had the accoutrements of modern society for the last 100 years or so.

Aside from the direct casualties of of whatever cataclysm rendered modern society to the great dustbin of history, the likely outcome looks better for us then most creatures. We have an extremely wide habitat range and an omnivorous diet. Our ability to communicate abstract ideas to one another with relative ease insures that vital information is likely to be passed on pretty quickly by those remaining.

Naturally, life expectancy would plummet, as would anyone dependent on technology to survive, such as diabetics. The individual might not fare so well. However, assuming any cataclysm such as likely to allow the survival of mammals, the human race has a pretty good shot at continuing along.

 

[Blakut]

But then the nazis would take over. No seriously, extremists, religious or otherwise, would have better chances of survival. Wouldn't they? Didn't religion offer an evolutionary advantage?
It seems to me that the local crazy cult would indeed survive and grow...