(OT) Monte Cook's most recent rant.....

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Hmmm...interesting. I've been trained, so that I can survive in the wilderness, and I can hunt, and I can do some carpentry and some painting. I have been trained to kill people a dozen different ways.

Can't do too much in the mechanical department though.

I'm college educated, quite literate, and well-read. I had a grandfather though, who lived in Texas way back when. He was a Deputy Sheriff, a power-lineman, an electrician, a carpenter, a plumber, an auto-mechanic, and he could farm, hunt, and shoot, too.

Think of something physical, technical, or mechanical, and he could do it. He was a big man, 6'4", and strong. He could do it all. He never went to college, and he wasn't anywhere near as educated as I am.

But I admire my old grandfather. As a man, he had so many skills. I think it takes natural talent, and lots of hard work. Of course, living out on the backside of nowhere, without any of the modern gizmo's that we have today--or even back then in the 1930's!--I think the environment of being on your own and needing to be self-sufficient forces you to master many different skills.

I wish that I could do what my grandfather could do, but then again, if that were the case, I wouldn't be me, you know? I guess it's a trade off, if you will.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[mmadsen]

Y'know, I hate to be the one who brings up this point, but, even if our entire society crumbled into chaos this very moment, you could still get your hands on a gun or leather jacket.

Yes, but where would you get food and water? And how would you get rid of waste? What do you do when surrounded by millions of starving people and asphalt? And maybe a tank of gas to get somewhere else?

 

[Wolfen Priest]

just outta curiosity, why keep your sword at your parents house?

It's pretty big, and I keep it covered to help prevent rust from eating it. In fact, now that I think about it, I should get that thing and bring it back to my place...

It's just that I need to buy some rust-remover, and then wax the heck out of it before I can mount it on a wall or anything. And by then, anarchy will have likely claimed me.

 

[mmadsen]

good choices, i am always amazed at the folks who think they need to kill some huge beastie to eat, like in a world without refrigeration that deer/elk/buffalo is gonna last more than 2 days...

Presumably you'd pool your resources and kill one large beastie per group of hunters. It's all going to waste anyway, so you might as well share, and your odds of getting one big beastie multiplied by the amount of meat you can get are way higher than the odds of catching a rabbit times the meager amount of meat you can get off it.

 

[Wolfen Priest]

...your odds of getting one big beastie multiplied by the amount of meat you can get are way higher than the odds of catching a rabbit times the meager amount of meat you can get off it.

That's true, which is exactly why a spear would be much much better than a club. I think a club would be more useful for (non-lethally) beating up members of your own race and/or self-defense, etc. But for group hunting excursions, a spear would far surpass it.

 

[mmadsen]

The dark ages are here, and they always have been. Just because we call ourselves 'enlightened' doesn't make it so.

There's nothing particularly dark about the current age. At least in the First World, we have transportation, communication, law & order, more education than the students want, etc. What would make it "not dark"?

As to the 'caveman scenario,' the thing here is to ask yourself 'could I do it if I had to?' Think about that for a second. If it really came down to an apocalypse of sorts, could you skin an animal or make a club? I mean, I certainly could, and I bet most other people could if they had too. After all, what's a PVC pipe or crowbar? And skin, well, that's just stretched in the sun and cut with a sharp object or wrapped around the body.

Well, I'd know enough not to make a PVC club...

Seriously, most of us have roughly zero wilderness survival skills. Further, most of us couldn't even get to something resembling the wilderness if we wanted to, assuming some kind of apocalypse. And how do you sustain life on a vast asphalt plain in a desert? (That's southern California.)

 

[alsih2o]

Re: Re: (OT) Monte Cook's most recent rant.....

most of us couldn't even get to something resembling the wilderness if we wanted to, assuming some kind of apocalypse. And how do you sustain life on a vast asphalt plain in a desert? (That's southern California.)

wow, interesting take, i have spent all but 2 of my years in areas where i could hunt within a 5 minute walk, never thought about looking at it from a city-dwellers point of view!

 

[Zappo]

I find it's pretty normal that we don't know how our technology works. Technology is getting constantly more and more complex, while our mind is less or more the same. There's no way on Earth that a single person, in a post-holocaust scenario, manages to build a working computer from raw materials. You need a super-high-tech semiconductor facility, but even if he had that, he still wouldn't have the skills to 1) design the microchips, 2) put them together, 3) provide steady electrical energy, 4) program an OS, 5) program applications (and 6) create a cool-looking case ). Each one of those skills is hard enough that it takes a lifetime to master it to the point where you can do a decent work all by yourself. Most of those tasks are usually done by teams of dozens of people.

All the same, I don't feel in the least bit ashamed that I can't skin an animal, or find enough food in the wilderness. I just don't have time to learn those skills. Why should I? I don't need them, in our society, and that society doesn't seem like it's going to change any time soon (if not in becoming even more technological).

Fact is, it's pointless to worry about not knowing how what you are using works, or about what would you do without it. You depend on society to provide you with it. There's nothing you can do about it, and even if you could, why should you bother? Because of the 1:50000 possibility that in 17 years a meteorite strikes the Earth? Nah. I'll keep basing my life on high technology which I don't understand, instead, to be ready for the 49999:50000 possibility that in 17 years even a car will be so complex that no single man will be able to fix it except by replacing whatever is broken.

Which is already the case with computers, BTW: don't worry Monte, if your computer goes seriously broken, even a technician (hell, even the Intel R&D chief) would just tell you "dude, it was old anyway, get a new one. With a geforce 9..."

 

[Virginia Wilde]

In a different, more post-apocalyptic vein with PCs:

What are you talkin' about? You could just repair one....besides, that's why you get other people to help out. And besides, there's lotsa human bones everywhere....you could make a bichin' case. You know, with a skull on top, and little hard drive access lights in the eyes.

 

[mmadsen]

I can make fire one of several different ways from things found in nature. With that and rope/twinemaking, everything else just sort of falls into place.

Riiiiggghhhhttt...

Once you have fire and twine, the problem practically solves itself!