My New Project

When I've got nothing better to do with my time I'm going to start a project to document all the stuff that our modern generations (me included) are forgetting about how to live without technology.

While down in North Carolina I spent a fair amount of time talking to a really interesting older man who is ridiculously smart in practical matters, like how to stay alive matters. I could do pretty well (certainly far better than most I'd wager) if I was dropped in the middle of the wilderness, or if robots destroyed civilization, but I'd have some issues. This guy would have no issue whatsoever because he can do or make whatever it is he wants to use from scratch anyway, so modern conveniences simply save him time rather than make available things he'd have had no idea how to get or make.

It struck me as interesting that, in the span of two generations, our society has mostly forgotten how to survive outside of itself. If people had to build their own homes most would get crushed by their creations. If people couldn't get pickles or sauerkraut at the grocery store they would just stop eating them rather than making them themselves. If people couldn't get their tanks filled at the gas station they have no way of moving around.

Not this guy. He pretty much can, and has, made anything and everything necessary to support a high quality of life with or without civilization to back him up.

Let me make clear that I'm not a survivalist nut job who thinks that I need to learn basic skills in order to be able to escape to the hills when the UN takes over America and puts Iran "peacekeepers" in downtown NY city. Rather, I think it's an interesting juxtaposition that our society, while becoming more comfortable and prosperous has simultaneously become more fragile and ignorant in certain matters.

How many of you could even differentiate an oak from a maple from a birch? How about how to make something edible from acorns (careful, they're poisonous without special preparation)?