Things worth holding on to

[Cyborg Girl]

So, just a weird little poll: what three *modern* social or scientific ideas do you think are most worth preserving, in the event of a total, global collapse of civilization? And why?

For mine, in approximate order of importance...

1. The idea that women must not be treated as chattel, and have the right to control of their own bodies.

Rationale: I consider this a kind of bare minimum of common decency.

[Edit: actually this should be generalized to the idea that human beings cannot be property, period. It's been a particular problem with how women have been treated historically, though.]

2. The concept of writing. Not necessarily literacy itself, so much as the idea that words can be recorded in some form.

Rationale: if you want to rebuild technological civilization, you need this.

3. The germ theory of infectious disease, and more generally the idea that diseases have a physical cause.

Rationale: hugely increases survival odds, and might help resurrect the sciences later on.

[geonuc]

Yours are good. I'll vote for knowledge of electricity and electric power distribution. Depending on the extent of the collapse, actually generating electricity might be out of the question but it would be vitally important to preserve the knowledge so that people can work towards it. Electricity changes everything.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Two words: "Let's Not" by Isaac Asimov 1954.

[SciFiFisher]

I read somewhere that if you took all the physical trappings of society away but left the knowledge intact we would/could restore it in about 5-10 years. So, in a post apocalyptic world the only thing I want is for there to be at least 10 completely intact libraries. Just in case the barbarians burn down nine of them.

[The Supreme Canuck]

This book.

[Swift]

This isn't against you GJ, but I've come to the point of hating these kinds of end-of-the-world questions. They pop up several times a year on CQ/BAUT.

I think a lot of them stem from a weird fantasy that a lot of people (particularly guys?) have that is along the lines of "what if everyone else died, except me" (and some beautiful woman or women). I had them to, when I was a lot younger. But I now realise that in just about every one of these types of scenerios the outcome is I'm dead and my wife is dead and there is really nothing I can do about that.

So I only find them depressing and morbid.

Sorry, I'll go away now...

[Rommie]

Swift, I also think it's just that the apocalypse these days is pretty vogue. See: all the movies these days made on the topic. Society is in a bit of a pessimistic phase.

[Cyborg Girl]

Umm yeah, sorry but I've never fantasized about the end of the world. Yes really.
a) It's not like I have any chance of surviving, I'm a pencil-necked geek specializing in computers
b) The idea of being alone against the wilderness terrifies me
c) I don't want everyone I know and love to wind up dead

This isn't about "Oh hey, wouldn't it be nice to be all alone in the wilderness with a beautiful woman!" Because it wouldn't be nice at all. That's kind of the point.

For the record though, this thread was inspired by reading a novel and thinking that, boy, 19th century American society sucked, how can we avoid going back there?

Edit: Rommie has it in one. Things have been looking waaaaay down since the global economy went down the toilet.

[Swift]

Swift, I also think it's just that the apocalypse these days is pretty vogue. See: all the movies these days made on the topic. Society is in a bit of a pessimistic phase.

I'm unconvinced that society is any more pessimistic at the moment than any other time in the last 50 years. I recall a lot of atomic war / end of the world movies in the 50s and 60s.

But even if it is, it doesn't mean I have to join the parade.

[geonuc]

Swift, I also think it's just that the apocalypse these days is pretty vogue. See: all the movies these days made on the topic. Society is in a bit of a pessimistic phase.

I'm unconvinced that society is any more pessimistic at the moment than any other time in the last 50 years. I recall a lot of atomic war / end of the world movies in the 50s and 60s.

And I was personally involved with the rampant paranoia over nuclear war and Nuclear Winter in the 70s. Of course, maybe it wasn't paranoia because the Soviets were out to get us.