You underestimate the amount of common knowledge exists out here.
I may not have all the knowledge to build a generator but I understand the principles better than most people living in 1900 and its actually what I consider to be common knowledge. At the same time I have a neighbor with serious real world experience in both mechanical and electrical engineering.
I’m not a pilot but I understand the basic principles of flight well enough to put the Wright brothers decades ahead of where they were.
I’m not a biologist but I know that evil spirits don’t cause disease.
I know people talk a lot about the Fortschen book (One Second After), but there’s a really neat series of alt history/scifi novels that started with “1632” by Eric Flint that are worth the read.
The first book was done on a lark, plot was that a circa 1999 West Virginia coal mining town gets picked up and thrown back in time to Central Germany in the middle of the Thirty Years War. Basically Rednecks save the world by pitting modern firearms etc against arquebusses and pikes.
But the book really took off, and spurred a whole slew of follow ons that deal with the impact, and particularly the technological impact, of the knowlege and skills the West Virginians brought back with them.
The publisher (Baen) even has a dedicated tech section on their internet discussion site, with a LOT of not only STEM types, but also basement/garage hobbyists contributing ideas to ways that the knowledge available in a small modern day town could be applied to advance the technology environment of the mid-17th Century.
Really fascinating stuff, also very easy to lose hours and hours reading through.
“Im not a biologist but I know that evil spirits dont cause disease.”
There are Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, and many others who believe evil spirits exist and can cause illnesses. Being a biologist or even a medical doctor does not preclude one from such a belief.
There are many Christian missionaries who are medical doctors and have extensive, first-hand experience with both natural illnesses and those with spiritual causes.
In the Bible, Jesus healed those who were sick from natural maladies as well as those afflicted with evil spirits. Some of these had physical manifestations which mimicked natural illnesses such as being crippled, deaf or mute.
The existence of these things does not depend on anyone’s belief in them.
Great post, cc!
>Im not a biologist but I know that evil spirits dont cause disease.
Voodoo hoodoo on you!
Let me know how you feel in the morning :-)
Good point. It isn't like the wheel would have to be reinvented, and there will be numerous examples out there to figure out things.
More primitive vehicles will be at a premium for a while...and anyone with a pre-computer auto/truck could stash spare critical components where they'd be safe from an EMP or Carrington event. (Starter, coil, points, generator/alternator, condensors, light bulbs, etc.)