Is a return to the "dark ages" possible?

Castiel said:
Oil wise, we have Bio fuels, Synthetic Oils, Vegetable and Animal oils. Energy wise there a myriad source that I am sure you don't need me to list.
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Which synthetic oils do not need some sort of petroleum chemical component?

I like to group bio and veg together - and I don't think that's viable especially if extreme weather events continues to prevail. Soil errosion and quality is also a seriously underdiscussed problem.

I know energy could potentially be fine, its lubrication.

We need that regardless of the energy source, until we can possibly if you can concieve it move beyond moving metal parts?

Castiel said:
Mineral oils are simply cheaper and easier to extract in large quantities, as that declines other sources become more viable. .
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I have no idea on usable quantities with this - but it is finite like everything obviously.

Castiel said:
I don't forsee the same rapid fall into anarchism that you do at least not over the long term or on a Mad Max scale (however cool that would be, especially with my skillset).
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As I say, it's all supposition :)
 
If humans can figure out how to run diesel engines on coconut oil I am pretty certain, that when we run out of oil, the human race has reached a point where we have the knowledge and understand to progress forward and adapt.

It may even pull us all together.
 
Castiel said:
It is difficult to say, as there are alternatives to oil available. Would it drastically alter the way in which we generate energy and live our lives? I would say, of course.

However a move away from fossil fuels doesn't have to mean a decline in living conditions long term, it means a fundamental change in how we both perceive what is important and what we need, at least until other energy sources can be retooled and implemented.

I would expect that after a century or two of interregnum we would actually come out of it better off, especially as it would mena the end of the Oil economic structure that Globally brings so much strife to the world.


Going back to the 'Dark Ages', if you want to see what kind of accomplishments happened during this period, next time you are near one of the Great Cathedrals, (I see you're a Swindonian, so Salisbury is a good example) go inside a look, and I mean really look, at how it was built and what knowledge and artisan-ship was needed to build a structure that has lasted for almost a thousand years. No backward society could have constructed such architectural marvels, especially as they invented the tools, mathematics and architecture as they went along. The Magna Carta is also in Salisbury Cathedral and that is the basis of our legal system, again from the 'Dark Ages'
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I hope there's no offense, but the Magna Carta is a poor example of 'forward' thinking. The architecture is spot on though.
 
We'd need a global scale population decimating disaster to return the dark ages. A nuclear war would do. When the small groups of people left alive and dotted around the globe have to spend each and every hour/day struggling to survive in world without electricity and running water, literacy would become extinct in a few generations - you'll be teaching your kids how to hunt with a bow and spot safe plants to eat, not read about Spot and his big red ball. Once that happens nearly everything we'd learnt and accomplished as a species up to that point would be lost. We'd struggle back, and faster, but we would be starting again. On the bright side, we'll all be dead and not know about it :)
 
Warbie said:
We'd need a global scale population decimating disaster to return the dark ages. A nuclear war would do. When the small groups of people left alive and dotted around the globe have to spend each and every hour/day struggling to survive in world without electricity and running water, literacy would become extinct in a few generations - you'll be teaching your kids how to hunt with a bow and spot safe plants to eat, not read about Spot and his big red ball. Once that happens nearly everything we'd learnt and accomplished as a species up to that point would be lost. We'd struggle back, and faster, but we would be starting again. On the bright side, we'll all be dead and not know about it :)
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not if the surviving people have engineers among them, as they'd build some sort of machines to help with stuff
 
rypt said:
not if the surviving people have engineers among them, as they'd build some sort of machines to help with stuff
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How long would the parts last? What will they use for power? Electricity will be non existant and oil will be scarce - what there is will be used for warmth/light. Everything will rust, rubber will perish. Engineers will become hunters and farmers like everyone else. How long before the knowledge is lost? Teaching your children electrical engineering in a world in which it has no context. They won't listen - they'll be out fishing or trying to club someone to steal the shiny knife the ancients left behind and that can't be reproduced.
 
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