rebuilding post collapse.

[bigpaul]

the only reason hunter/gatherers stopped moving around was because they had the numbers to start farming, so it all depends on how many people actually survive, if the numbers are low you can forget about huge fields of wheat and corn, I've said it before and i'll keep repeating it until someone listens, your post collapse agriculture is going to be more akin to third world "subsistence farming" than any kind of agriculture around today. more likely something we would recognise as allotments or at the very most some kind of small(and I do mean small) holding. it will also depend on how much land/territory you can manage and control and keep secure ...again depending on the size of your family unit or "group".

[Scythe13]

Hunters and gatherers died off because those that embraced farming had armies and those armies killed them off. Think about the Inca empire and how they crushed the local tribes that wouldn't join with them. They did that by embracing farming. Massed farming allowed them to feed more people, which needed larger armies for more land protection, which needed more food, and it's a big circle. The thing is, the circle worked fine.

Farming led to over population, but it also led to the massive development in technology that we enjoy today.

It doesn't take many people to work a farm. Britain's largest chicken farms have fewer than 40 employees. Granted there's infrastructure in place to assist, e.g. grain deliveries and the alike. But a lot of farming has a pretty low manpower need. A few people can provide for a lot of others.

A group of 100 people could happily feed 1000.

[bigpaul]

there are less people in farming because 1. they can earn more money sitting at a computer, and 2. we have mechanisation, with huge tractors and combines a lot of work can be done with fewer people. post collapse everything will have to be done by hand, or by using horses as it was before the first world war, it will be labour intensive, so the scale of any enterprise will depend on how many in any group and indeed on the overall survival rate.

[HERNE]

(13 June 2015, 18:17)Mortblanc Wrote: 2. All other cultures have the same nature as the British people and their tendency toward depression and easy acceptance of suicide over hardship.

True, some countries have a far worse tendency towards depression and suicide, on average two and a half time worse than the UK.

That would be the US, but don't take my word for it https://www.nationmaster.com/country-inf...cide-rates

[Mortblanc]

Herne, your stats are 32 years old.

Not saying they are wrong, just that trends change in 30 years.

The 90s were a rough time over here. Clinton was president and we had no will to live.

[bigpaul]

there was a lot of depression and mental health issues during the pandemic and so there will also be WTSHTF.

[Petertherabbit]

Subsistence farming, smallholding will be the beginning and may continue for 30-50 yrs. But the knowledge of former society and technology is there, we won't have to reinvent, or invent every technological development, just relearn them and rebuild the machines with which to reassemble them.
We would be a long way from manufacturering and the chemical industries but they in turn, started simple and grew. It is not beyond the wisdom of man to recreate them.

[bigpaul]

wishful thinking, the raw materials if they even still exist will be beyond mankinds reach for many years, many decades and maybe even a century if the collapse is that complete. we would need to start small and dont run before we can walk.
the chances of another industrial revolution are slim to none, mother nature rarely gives two bites of the cherry.

[Skean Dhude]

I'm with Paul. The time when coal was just below the surface is gone. It is deep underground and without power for the air and lifts you just can't get to it. Making electronic parts is a specialist business. For most of us it will be living on what we have. For most eventualities we will be back to the Iron age. Only a couple of scenarios have us being able to return to normal in a reasonable timescale and that would be the one where we still have power and a few specialists survive. Not knowing exactly what will happen means that it is possible that be could be back to normal in a few years. That could only be if an event was localised.

You are right though about having the knowledge and eventually we could build back but it will be well into the future. I have books on much of what is needed for rebuilding but will they survive. Some will and they will be owned by the Wizards of the future. Perhaps somewhere there will be equipment and buildings with some of this kit in but IMO it won't be for several decades.