From John Broomfield
In his letter, Peter Inkpen proposes storing our knowledge for future generations, in case our civilisation destroys itself. He also notes that we have thoroughly plundered our natural resources (20 December 2003, p 34), something which in fact is likely to be a far more serious problem.
If we have consumed all the easily available sources of ores, coal, oil and other essentials for industrialisation, how will people of the future reindustrialise? Will they skip to the post-industrial information age? I think not. How will dark-age humans be able to go mining under the sea for coal, or seek out oil offshore or in the Russian tundra?
The industrial revolution started in parts of England where there was available labour and easily winnable coal, iron ore and limestone to make iron and steel. This made it possible to make power systems and machinery. Classical literature describes steam turbines, for example, that could not be developed then.
How would our dark-age successors find the resources to take advantage of today’s knowledge, even if it were available to them? Perhaps industrial civilisation is a fragile thing that once broken cannot be mended, and this is why we cannot find any sign of the thousands of intelligent life forms that are supposed to be out there on other Earth-like planets. They have been through their industrial age and lacked the resources to rebuild it when it failed.
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East Molesey, Surrey, UK
