After the Zombie Apocaplypse - Serious Questions for an Unserious Topic
September 9, 2011 at 9:21 am
Most of us on here are at least to some degree entertained by the notion of zombies and a zombie apocalypse. But while it's great fun to imagine being the badass who aims for the head, there's a whole aftermath to the hypothetical event that we rarely talk about.
The Zombie Survival Guide does give ideas for how to hunker down after the main event to wait out whatever happens afterwards. But once the zombies have disintegrated, or been destroyed, how do we pick back up?
Rhythm and I often joke that we're absolutely needed on someone's team - you need someone who knows plants, wild or domesticated, and preferably someone who's used to coaxing them out of the ground. Think about it - with a significant amount of the population gone, you might still have growers but you won't have transporters or grocers...or vice versa. There go your oranges from CA and FL, and your peaches from SC and your Guatamalan tomatoes or what-have-you.
How does humanity come back from an event like this (or even a true pandemic), especially when, as Steven Novella brings up in this blog post, we're likely to have a significant loss of experts in all fields?
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index...expertise/
As he points out:
So just like Mr. Novella and his panel did at Dragon*Con, I'd like to have our own thought experiment about how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. What skills would you bring to the table? It's not as simple as writing it off by saying "eh, I'm a thoroughly modern monster and couldn't live without a functioning microwave." That might be true from a cooking standpoint, but are there other skills you might offer a survival group? This is the time when you have to be the most creative - even down to "I'm good at training dogs - I could raise dogs for my group to help hunt for food."
This is, incidentally, a fantastic way to get to know members of this forum. You really have to think about yourself and what you have to offer.
As for myself, I know how to get things to grow and I have a basic knowledge of wild edibles that would certainly be supplemented if I raided abandoned libraries and bookstores. I have a good and agile memory when I choose to flex it, and there are things stored in it passed down from my father, who's a former Army Ranger and a former mini-farm living redneck to boot - things about plants and animals, how to fish and helpful hints when hunting. Thanks to working around or pal-ing around with construction workers and those who are construction-minded, I have the rudiments of how to build things - enough to help without hindering when it comes to making shelters or strongholds, anyway.
I'm not squeamish about blood. I don't know dick about medical conditions beyond first aid, but I don't get sick around it. (Unless someone's puking in front of me - then you're on your own, sorry.) I've a passing interest in both the folk-traditions and scientific reality of plant-based medicines.
I can sew and know the basics of clothing construction. If there's electricity still, I could keep people more or less clothed with a sewing machine. I'd move a lot slower by hand.
What can you all do? Do you have hobbies that would end up being coveted talents later? How do you think the world would have to restructure itself to cope with significant life loss? (Here's where you government and politics buffs come in) Are you mechanically minded? Do you know a lot about history to give people ideas of how we used to live and work?
Remember - satellite technicians might get hit, so a billion different areas of life would be affected - cell phones, computers, gps, anything that depends on those great machines in the sky would be out. Imagine a world similar to the third Resident Evil movie - scrounging for gas and hiding from any flesh-eaters that might be left.
The Zombie Survival Guide does give ideas for how to hunker down after the main event to wait out whatever happens afterwards. But once the zombies have disintegrated, or been destroyed, how do we pick back up?
Rhythm and I often joke that we're absolutely needed on someone's team - you need someone who knows plants, wild or domesticated, and preferably someone who's used to coaxing them out of the ground. Think about it - with a significant amount of the population gone, you might still have growers but you won't have transporters or grocers...or vice versa. There go your oranges from CA and FL, and your peaches from SC and your Guatamalan tomatoes or what-have-you.
How does humanity come back from an event like this (or even a true pandemic), especially when, as Steven Novella brings up in this blog post, we're likely to have a significant loss of experts in all fields?
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index...expertise/
As he points out:
Quote:There are several factors to consider. The first is the number of areas of expertise. We may think of doctors, physicists, and engineers, but actually within each of those fields there are dozens of general areas of expertise, and hundreds of areas of subspecialty. In every discipline there are several layers of greater and greater, yet narrower and narrower expertise. Chances are, most of the narrow focuses of expertise will be lost in the apocalypse. We would be left with a random scattering of knowledge.
There are also many areas of knowledge of which you may not even be aware, and some that are mere hobbies in modern society but will become essential to a civilization reboot. Blacksmiths, woodwrights, and hunters may be mostly hobbyists, but in a post-apocalyptic world their skills will likely be essential.
So just like Mr. Novella and his panel did at Dragon*Con, I'd like to have our own thought experiment about how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. What skills would you bring to the table? It's not as simple as writing it off by saying "eh, I'm a thoroughly modern monster and couldn't live without a functioning microwave." That might be true from a cooking standpoint, but are there other skills you might offer a survival group? This is the time when you have to be the most creative - even down to "I'm good at training dogs - I could raise dogs for my group to help hunt for food."
This is, incidentally, a fantastic way to get to know members of this forum. You really have to think about yourself and what you have to offer.
As for myself, I know how to get things to grow and I have a basic knowledge of wild edibles that would certainly be supplemented if I raided abandoned libraries and bookstores. I have a good and agile memory when I choose to flex it, and there are things stored in it passed down from my father, who's a former Army Ranger and a former mini-farm living redneck to boot - things about plants and animals, how to fish and helpful hints when hunting. Thanks to working around or pal-ing around with construction workers and those who are construction-minded, I have the rudiments of how to build things - enough to help without hindering when it comes to making shelters or strongholds, anyway.
I'm not squeamish about blood. I don't know dick about medical conditions beyond first aid, but I don't get sick around it. (Unless someone's puking in front of me - then you're on your own, sorry.) I've a passing interest in both the folk-traditions and scientific reality of plant-based medicines.
I can sew and know the basics of clothing construction. If there's electricity still, I could keep people more or less clothed with a sewing machine. I'd move a lot slower by hand.
What can you all do? Do you have hobbies that would end up being coveted talents later? How do you think the world would have to restructure itself to cope with significant life loss? (Here's where you government and politics buffs come in) Are you mechanically minded? Do you know a lot about history to give people ideas of how we used to live and work?
Remember - satellite technicians might get hit, so a billion different areas of life would be affected - cell phones, computers, gps, anything that depends on those great machines in the sky would be out. Imagine a world similar to the third Resident Evil movie - scrounging for gas and hiding from any flesh-eaters that might be left.
![[Image: Untitled2_zpswaosccbr.png]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i1140.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fn569%2Fthesummerqueen%2FUntitled2_zpswaosccbr.png)
).
![[Image: mybannerglitter06eee094.gif]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=i118.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo112%2Fpussinboots_photos%2FBikes%2Fmybannerglitter06eee094.gif)
