[After The End] Rebuilding Civilization

[Inky]

Only some resources would be plentiful. The scarce things (besides, as AlexanderHowl said, anything directly damaged by the disaster) would be the ones that need human labout to produce. You'd have (radioactive fall-out or whatever permitting) lots of land and mineral resources to go around, wild plants and animals too, and all the non-perishable food stocks and things like clothing and paper until they ran out, all shared between fewer people. But the crops you could grow and the minerals you could mine on all that land would be limited by how many people could get organised to work on it - and further by how many of them knew what they were doing and whether any of the machinery was still usable.

But this is all basic stuff and you'll see it described better than I have in any well-thought-out post-apocalyptic science fiction book. The Day of the Triffids, for instance, is a marvel on that.

What was PrinceCharon asking for thoughts on, specifically?


Regarding Star Trek specifically, I've often thought that this is why humans have gained such a reputation as the do-gooders of the Alpha Quadrant - they rebuilt their own civilisation, and not that long ago (compared to, say, the Vulcans), meaning they know a lot about this, and they probably have a fellow feeling for other crashed civilisations.
When I've read about people studying this question, running simulations and the like, they nearly always say that in a total collapse of society those who co-operate a lot, share what resources they have and help each other out actually stand the best chance of survival. It's not even just about "the weak shall perish", because nobody can guarantee to be strong ALL the time. If you're weak, whether old or sick or disabled or just not very physically tough, and you try to go it alone, you probably die, and the people who left you to fend for yourself while they looked out for themselves probably only then realise that you were the last person with the particular expert knowledge they needed left alive within fifty miles. If you're strong, then you may get by all right with your huntin', shootin' and fishin' until you break your leg or get sick from poisoned water - then, with nobody to bring you food, you're in trouble. And the man who hides out alone in the woods or in his house with a stash of tinned food and a gun will very likely be murdered for them, by some looter who's as altruistic as he is and quicker on the draw. There's strength in numbers. Perhaps that's where United Earth actually gets its all-for-one-and-one-for-all ethos from, or the beginnings of it - they, or their ancestors, were the ones who co-operated and survived, and having once got a society like that started they kept it going?