>> Don't worry, it's just my tendency to go poking at an interesting idea to see what will happen. <<
I understand the temptation.
>> Good for annoying teachers, confusing most other people, and occasionally coming up with some really good new ideas! <<
LOL yes.
>> (And most post apocalyptic stuff only has hazy rumors, if anything, about what is 'out there, in the great beyond,' which would be Truth in Television if all our post-1800s tech got knocked out anyway.) <<
Well, that varies a lot. Maps, which America has in abundance, remain very useful items for a long time. Aspects include:
* Major features change very slowly. The shapes of continents, locations of major lakes, etc. will stay the same. So will locations of former cities.
* Modern paved roads will last up to around 25 years with low or no maintenance before they start getting worse than many vehicles can handle. Their maximum lifespan is around 40-50 years before they really need replacing, even with maintenance.
Currently, people are doing their best to maintain roads in active use, which is a tiny portion of the former network. Unused roads will degrade. But there's a huge difference in speed based on environment. A jungle can swallow a road completely in just a few years. A forest probably takes at least 10-20 of no traffic before the road gets hard to find. In much of the temperate area, the fragments will probably remain findable -- and followable -- for much longer than they remain driveable. But out west, where it's hot and dry, with little or no assault from snow and salt, the roads could last a lot longer, especially in terms of being able to find and follow them.
This matters immensely, because once the road goes, it becomes a great deal harder to locate places that used to be along it. Also, it is a giant pain in the ass to hike through the wilderness with a dirt drill, trying to find the fucking road that went somewhere now vital to reach. And that's what it takes in a lot of places by the time you're 50-100 years after the crash.
* What can change very fast is the social arrangements. Just 15 A.E. the whole political structure of North America is completely different. Some remnant borders still influence the shape of the new territories, but others are creating their own borders. There's a very dramatic Navajo-Pueblo squabble heating up in the southwest (which is not new, but was cold for centuries).
* Another thing that can change fast, but usually takes a few years to build up, is failure-based alterations of the landscape. Humans have installed a great deal of infrastructure to move or maintain things, especially water. Levies will be among the first things to go, because they're just not that strong and they take a lot of pressure from storms. Hell, by 15 A.E. the Mississippi could well have shook off its harness and hauled ass downhill from New Orleans -- that would likely happen with the first really big storm, and 15 years is a pretty long stretch to go without one.
A lot of places that rely on drainage systems will start clogging and refilling with water, anywhere from a few years to a few decades depending on how much maintenance the stuff requires and how recently it was upgraded.
Dams will break, and those make huge changes. You never want to be downstream of a dam after an apocalypse. Sooner or later they all break, and the floods can be devastating. Though honestly, if you don't need them for electricity at your level of tech and you do need food, you're better off breaking most of them. The few surviving salmon and other anadramous fish will quickly recolonize a freed river.
* What you don't know, and what is critical to find out after an apocalypse, is what resources are in reach and what your neighbors are doing. You really need to know what survived and what didn't. If someone has a tampon production or battery factory, you need to know that. If a former lake is now a free-flowing river, you need to know that. If a former hobby reserve is now 25 acres of oakmast raining acorns that attract vast herds of deer, you need to know that. So scouts and explorers are critical personnel.
* Also within 10-25 years of the apocalypse, you need to set up a new mating system, and this is much easier the earlier you do it than it will be later when people's ideas are entrenched again. You have to keep genes moving among small communities or you hit problems pretty quick. So you want to set up a spring or fall (or both) gather when people from several nearby communities mingle, allowing trade and the exchange of young singles. In order to do this, you need to know where the current settlements are, then figure out a good meeting place, which may be central or may rotate among the settlements.
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dancing_serpent
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-02-10 03:21 am (UTC)I understand the temptation.
>> Good for annoying teachers, confusing most other people, and occasionally coming up with some really good new ideas! <<
LOL yes.
>> (And most post apocalyptic stuff only has hazy rumors, if anything, about what is 'out there, in the great beyond,' which would be Truth in Television if all our post-1800s tech got knocked out anyway.) <<
Well, that varies a lot. Maps, which America has in abundance, remain very useful items for a long time. Aspects include:
* Major features change very slowly. The shapes of continents, locations of major lakes, etc. will stay the same. So will locations of former cities.
* Modern paved roads will last up to around 25 years with low or no maintenance before they start getting worse than many vehicles can handle. Their maximum lifespan is around 40-50 years before they really need replacing, even with maintenance.
Currently, people are doing their best to maintain roads in active use, which is a tiny portion of the former network. Unused roads will degrade. But there's a huge difference in speed based on environment. A jungle can swallow a road completely in just a few years. A forest probably takes at least 10-20 of no traffic before the road gets hard to find. In much of the temperate area, the fragments will probably remain findable -- and followable -- for much longer than they remain driveable. But out west, where it's hot and dry, with little or no assault from snow and salt, the roads could last a lot longer, especially in terms of being able to find and follow them.
This matters immensely, because once the road goes, it becomes a great deal harder to locate places that used to be along it. Also, it is a giant pain in the ass to hike through the wilderness with a dirt drill, trying to find the fucking road that went somewhere now vital to reach. And that's what it takes in a lot of places by the time you're 50-100 years after the crash.
* What can change very fast is the social arrangements. Just 15 A.E. the whole political structure of North America is completely different. Some remnant borders still influence the shape of the new territories, but others are creating their own borders. There's a very dramatic Navajo-Pueblo squabble heating up in the southwest (which is not new, but was cold for centuries).
* Another thing that can change fast, but usually takes a few years to build up, is failure-based alterations of the landscape. Humans have installed a great deal of infrastructure to move or maintain things, especially water. Levies will be among the first things to go, because they're just not that strong and they take a lot of pressure from storms. Hell, by 15 A.E. the Mississippi could well have shook off its harness and hauled ass downhill from New Orleans -- that would likely happen with the first really big storm, and 15 years is a pretty long stretch to go without one.
A lot of places that rely on drainage systems will start clogging and refilling with water, anywhere from a few years to a few decades depending on how much maintenance the stuff requires and how recently it was upgraded.
Dams will break, and those make huge changes. You never want to be downstream of a dam after an apocalypse. Sooner or later they all break, and the floods can be devastating. Though honestly, if you don't need them for electricity at your level of tech and you do need food, you're better off breaking most of them. The few surviving salmon and other anadramous fish will quickly recolonize a freed river.
* What you don't know, and what is critical to find out after an apocalypse, is what resources are in reach and what your neighbors are doing. You really need to know what survived and what didn't. If someone has a tampon production or battery factory, you need to know that. If a former lake is now a free-flowing river, you need to know that. If a former hobby reserve is now 25 acres of oakmast raining acorns that attract vast herds of deer, you need to know that. So scouts and explorers are critical personnel.
* Also within 10-25 years of the apocalypse, you need to set up a new mating system, and this is much easier the earlier you do it than it will be later when people's ideas are entrenched again. You have to keep genes moving among small communities or you hit problems pretty quick. So you want to set up a spring or fall (or both) gather when people from several nearby communities mingle, allowing trade and the exchange of young singles. In order to do this, you need to know where the current settlements are, then figure out a good meeting place, which may be central or may rotate among the settlements.