If a global catastrophe hit, something bad enough to knock civilization back a thousand years or so?

Question

do you think you could survive? If so, what would give you a survival edge?

Answer 1

I could survive fairly well as I have studied herbal remedies and alternative healing practices (like massage for sprains). I also know how to hunt and about edible plants.

I know not just how to construct but also how to use a bow. I already own swords and daggers that I know how to use as well.

I can build a fire and purify water without chemicals as well as knowing how to either find or build shelter.

Because of the above reasons (as well as my experiences in the French Quarter of New Orleans after Katrina) I could probably do much better than a lot of other people.....

Answer 2

Who knows? Depends on how it actually affects my specific island corner of the world, doesn't it?

The advantage we would have here is 1) natural resources: abundant supply of fresh water, fertile soil, and plenty of fish. 2) we've got more of a community way-of-life here than in more "civilized" places; we're used to looking out for each other - something I couldn't say about L.A. 3) relatively speaking, once we got used to doing without electricity and refrigeration, things wouldn't be that different than they were here just a couple generations ago.

Then again, global catastrophe and all, we'd probably be the first ones to get swallowed up by the ocean, right?

Peace to you.

Answer 3

Sure could, raised in the bush. Know how to hunt without a gun, fish with a net, gather, cultivate, spin, weave, heal, build a house without a nail and turn a herring into a candle. Yeah, I'd be way better off than most survivors. But why only 1000 years? Things weren't all that primitive then.

Answer 4

13 years in scouting
+
4 years in the USAF as a cop stationed in some of the harshest weather this world has to offer
+
Currently in the Army
+
Will to survive
+
The fact that I am well equipped and prepared for anything that may arise

=
Yes I would do just fine

Answer 5

Oh yes, baby!
Just wait a second till I get my swords, my longbow, my medieval armour and helmet and all that gear...
Which, BTW, i am fully capable of using because of my medieval martial arts training. I'm also pretty damn good at making things.
I'm relatively okay at keeping my garden, so I guess I could grow some food just well.
The only things i would REALLY miss would be certain hygiene products.. and a doctor.

Answer 6

i'd be a basket case.

don, knowledge can indeed be lost. look at the fall of rome. they've found surgical tools at roman sites that are nearly identical to modern ones. the ancients enjoyed plumbing on a scale that wasn't realized until almost 1800 years later. the building and fine arts regressed to a primitive state.

Answer 7

Sure could, several years growing up on farmland taught me the basics of survival. Hunting, fishing, camping and growing vegetables in a garden would give me all I need to survive. I suppose seven years in the infantry sure could come in handy as well.

Answer 8

I don't know that I could. I know how to build a fire, but I have no idea how to trap and kill something I could eat. I know how to grow stuff, but I don't know that I could grow stuff from scratch. I'm in decent shape, but I don't know how I would do in the elements. I think a lot for me would depend upon how much of my old civilization I would be able to use.

Answer 9

You can't "knock civilization back." Once knowledge exists, it is very difficult to erase it.

If I had to exist in the year 1007, I'd certainly know how to build a shelter, hunt, grow crops, make clothes, etc. It's not that difficult to survive.

Now progress... that's another story.

Answer 10

Maybe, probably because my town is partially self-sufficient.
So we'd have food.
It's the water I'm worried about.
We don't really have many fresh water lakes, and our wells are powered by electricity.