From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Tue Aug 17 2004 - 23:42:34 MDT
At 04:15 AM 17/08/04 -0700, you wrote:
>--- Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com>
>wrote:
>
> > I don't know to what extent the Easter
> > Islanders would have been
> > helped by a market system, since I know little
> > about that situation.
>Their society crashed when they ran out of trees.
>There was no nearby place to get more trees, and
>no way at all to build boats. They were trapped.
>
>I see similar possibilities for technological
>society as a whole. Suppose a severe setback of
>some sort left us with only a 19th C. tech base.
The big question is how much of the population was lost in "a severe setback."
A 19th C. tech base will only support a 19th century population.
But something that wiped out 80% of the population but didn't damage the
infrastructure would let us run on nuclear power, hydro and wind for a long
time.
Keith Henson
>We might still have all the advanced info but how
>would that help when all the easy-to-reach oil
>was pumped long ago, or some other basic raw
>materials could no longer be accessed because all
>the low-hanging fruit had been taken?
>
>Not saying it will happen, or is even likely, but
>I can imagine it.
>
>Tom Buckner
>
>
>
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