Fallout Discussion

[Dark_Raven]

I always wondered how the human populance could devolve into a bunch of backwards tribals when technology and knowledge still exist not to mention survivors of the great war would have passed on their knowledge to their offspring.

[SteveThaiBinh]

I've read that the Maya Civilization of Central America was in a very much reduced state when the Spanish encountered them, and had lost most of its knowledge of astronomy, architecture and so on. There are several theories as to how and why this happened - the most interesting (though probably not the most widely accepted) is that the astronomer-priests simply announced one day that they had read in the stars that the civilization should immediately abandon its cities and go and live in the forests.

[Gorth]

Try imagine North America without fuel for 5 years...?

 

No phones (including cellphones), no computer networks, no tv, no radio, no cars, no trains, no airplanes...

 

No delivery of produce from the country side to the cities, no deliveries of farming equipment from the industrial areas to the farmlands...

 

No schools or education save whatever books and papers you might be lucky to find, either in libraries or abandoned book stores...

 

A system made up of specialists, who are all bricks in the wall, starts to crumble. It doesn't matter that you have a degree or two in physics if you can't catch your food once the canned stuff have been scavenged from the grocery stores. The most likely survivors will be the generalists, who can do a variety of essential survival tasks. Fishing, hunting, growing crops (without advanced technology) and perhaps a few demagogues who can BS others into doing the work for them.

 

Without an infrastructure in place, we are nothing. I would say, it is quite easy to imagine really

[Morgoth]

I always wondered how the human populance could devolve into a bunch of backwards tribals when technology and knowledge still exist not to mention survivors of the great war would have passed on their knowledge to their offspring.

Maybe everyone was so fed up after the war that nobody wanted to start rebuilding everything, prefering just to sit in the tribal camps instead and smoking pot, gamble, watching TV, amusing with hookers....

[Dark_Raven]

I suppose I can see the human race reverting to being barbarians. What is left of them any way. The people of today are not prepared to live like people 150 years ago. Most homes do not have a means for cooking your own food or heating it, not to mention getting water. No fire places or wells. Gas ovens, gas heaters and city water wouldn't exist.

 

Most people do not have the knowledge or the skill to maintain themselves. Hunting? Most people would go ewww over dressing their own game meat. That is if them shot, trapped any. Only a select few have the ability to farm, even fewer with the ability to farm without machinery. Current trades mean little with out technology. Few of us know anything about the trades of the past like leather goods (foot wear, clothes, etc), carpentry, masonry, etc.

 

The human race would be in poor shape to do anything. We rely too much on technology and machines to do things for us. Look at natural disasters like Katrina in New Orleans. Pretty pathetic.

[Walsingham]

Check out the BBC documentary 'Threads'.

[jaguars4ever]

We're still talking about Canada, right?

[Slowtrain]

Would you even want to live in a world without antibiotics and stuff (and no medkits or health potions either!). I wouldn't.

 

And the human race would decend into total barbarism and savagery pretty quickly. The veneer of our civilization is pretty thin.

[Sand]

No matter how well you dress him up in fancy clothes, the human is still just an animal, a primal beast just seconds above the other creatures of earth on the evolutionary ladder.

[Morgoth]

No matter how well you dress him up in fancy clothes, the human is still just an animal, a primal beast just seconds above the other creatures of earth on the evolutionary ladder.

Where did you pick up that dramatic line? Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

 

A well educated, cultivated and motivated human being is more than a primal beast - it's what sets humans apart from monkeys and dogs. Rob everything that this human being has worked so hard for everything however.... well, I see your point.

 

The hell with all, should the anarchy come.

 

I'm not giving up on my strawberry garden though! *reloads shotgun*

[Darque]

Having high tech doesn't mean you can really fix it without the base technologies they are built on.

 

And if the people who had that knowledge got wiped out with the bombs.... the survivors would have nice toys but no way to make new ones or make replacement parts for old ones.... and things would head for a dark age (as seen in fallout)

 

This is why the Enclave continued to develop, and most everyone else slid backwards. (as far as I can tell)

[Tale]

No matter how well you dress him up in fancy clothes, the human is still just an animal, a primal beast just seconds above the other creatures of earth on the evolutionary ladder.

That explains why Tigers have been seen playing with bronzework.

[Sand]

A well educated, cultivated and motivated human being is more than a primal beast - it's what sets humans apart from monkeys and dogs. Rob everything that this human being has worked so hard for everything however.... well, I see your point.

 

 

I think that the well educated, cultivated and motivated human being is sorely out numbered as well.

Edited December 26, 2007 by Sand

[Walsingham]

I agree with Morgoth, that humanity is far from the beast where it has been civilised. However, that civilisation is based on having leisure time in which to learn and contemplate. Much of our current leisure time arises from the highly complex and high energy systems around us. Disruption to these could be disastrous. Look t the 1929 stock market crash.

[Sand]

There are still those among our species that still play as the beast they are, Walsh. Also there are times when our animal side cannot be sated, for whatever reason, and spontaneously goes berserk or does something that "civilized" people find unacceptable.

[CoM_Solaufein]

There are still those among our species that still play as the beast they are, Walsh. Also there are times when our animal side cannot be sated, for whatever reason, and spontaneously goes berserk or does something that "civilized" people find unacceptable.

One example of that would be in times of food shortages. When the body has had a lack of food over a period of time, the mind reverts to that of a crazed animal. Instances of cannibalism has shown this.

 

As already been stated in here, man would break down rather fast in the event of a catastrophic event like a nuclear war. Most of the survivors would not possess the knowledge and means to support themselves, we rely far too much on technology.

[Slowtrain]

Wait, you mean steak doesn't come right out of the cow pre-packaged in shrinkwrap and styrofoam?

[Humodour]

Haha my mum's got a bloody backyard that supplies eggs and greens all year round, and fruit in their respective seasons. Not to mention all the books and past experience my family has had with self-sufficiency.

 

You'd be surprised how many people are into that sort or thing, or could work it out.

[Musopticon?]

You'd be surprised how few people actually are into that sort of thing.

 

And on the areas of globe that people actually are backward enough(not generalizing, I'm sure your mumsy is educated) to be able to live off the land, they'd probably die of pandemics from the lack antibiotics and basic meds after the initial culling. Should an apocalyptic scenario kick in.

[Walsingham]

There are still those among our species that still play as the beast they are, Walsh. Also there are times when our animal side cannot be sated, for whatever reason, and spontaneously goes berserk or does something that "civilized" people find unacceptable.

One example of that would be in times of food shortages. When the body has had a lack of food over a period of time, the mind reverts to that of a crazed animal. Instances of cannibalism has shown this.

 

As already been stated in here, man would break down rather fast in the event of a catastrophic event like a nuclear war. Most of the survivors would not possess the knowledge and means to support themselves, we rely far too much on technology.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with relying on technology. The problem is merely that we don't teach backup procedures. No-one even keeps a larder for pity's sake. And that's both safe and economical.

[Dark_Raven]

Haha my mum's got a bloody backyard that supplies eggs and greens all year round, and fruit in their respective seasons. Not to mention all the books and past experience my family has had with self-sufficiency.

 

You'd be surprised how many people are into that sort or thing, or could work it out.

I'm afraid us city people don't have that luxury. Apartments are very lacking when the means of electricity, water and gas are no longer functional.

[Gorth]

It makes you wonder though, how long his mum is going to hang on to those eggs and greens when shotgun armed thugs start roaming the country side, thinking it easier to take crops rather than grow crops?

 

Evolution in action.

[Dark_Raven]

Darwinism. Survival of the fittest.

[Humodour]

You'd be surprised how few people actually are into that sort of thing.

 

And on the areas of globe that people actually are backward enough(not generalizing, I'm sure your mumsy is educated) to be able to live off the land, they'd probably die of pandemics from the lack antibiotics and basic meds after the initial culling. Should an apocalyptic scenario kick in.

 

Yeah, because deadly bacteria pandemics come through once a month and if we don't all take our antibiotics, it's one foot in the grave! But I agree, farming and agriculture are definitely backwards; it's a sign of civilisation when your people are too stupid to be able to figure out how to deal when things get rough and they can't buy at a supermarket anymore.

 

It makes you wonder though, how long his mum is going to hang on to those eggs and greens when shotgun armed thugs start roaming the country side, thinking it easier to take crops rather than grow crops?

 

Evolution in action.

 

Both my parents renew their gun licenses. If anybody is doing the pillaging, it'll be us!

 

I don't believe overly much in the doomsday, tribal, devolving to primal animals predictions of what would happen after an apocalypse. At least not the the extent people in this thread are romanticising about it, and certainly not to the extent Fallout did. Fallout was fun because it was playing out an extreme worst case scenario which focused on the most primitive aspects of humanity more than anything else. I'm picturing something more like Dark Angel, or Jericho at a pinch.

Edited December 29, 2007 by Krezack

[Humodour]

Example of a productive use of modern technology, which I would miss were electricity to fall: