• BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I find it amazing that finance, sales, etc are held in such high regard when it’s science and technology that advance society.

      • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I mention farming below. Plumbing, well depends on population. We can shit in the field like we did for millennia. It’s just fertilizer.

        • superkret@feddit.org
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          2 months ago

          Also a Cholera breeding ground. Which is why for centuries more people died in cities than were born, despite having no access to contraception.

          • ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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            2 months ago

            That’s where the science and technology comes in.

            Also, isn’t plumbing a technology? Or does it have to be in the Civ VI Technology tree to be recognised as one? I know Agriculture and Animal Husbandry is

          • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Depends on population level. Don’t need plumbing until towns get to the size that outhouses don’t work. Just need soap to wash our hands.

    • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      Most scientific and engineering skills would also be useless if civilization collapses. For example, I am a scientific software developer. Most of my work has been for medical research, which is something people tend to respect. However, I wouldn’t be able to do anything useful with numerical modelling in a survival situation. My limited skills as an amateur home renovator would be far more relevant.

      • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I agree with the rebuilding civilization from scratch part, but it’s still what advances society.

        *In this case, what will advance society is farming equipment. Machining science.

        • Tobberone@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          It’s a bit like Maslows hierarchy of needs. First we need food and water and plumbing. When we are secure in those needs, society can take the next step. But the basis of security must be there before advancement

          • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I would say we need hygiene, which is different than plumbing. Plumbing comes into play when we have cities large enough that we can’t rely on outhouses.

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    As a software engineer I often think about how laughably useless my skillset would be in any kind of survival or societal reset sort of situation.

    • superkret@feddit.org
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      2 months ago

      At least you can analyze problems logically and break down complex procedures into small, manageable steps.

      SharePoint admins are really fucked.
      Anyone building a system that’s similar to what they’re used to, in a post-apocalyptic society, would be laughed at, then shot.

    • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      You’re a software engineer. You at least know the very basics of digital electronics, and can probably work your way backward to rudimentary power supplies.

      You are far from fucked.

      Mathematicians though? Oof I worry about them, if they did anything too practical they’d be physicists.

    • ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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      2 months ago

      But if you were isekaied at the start of the apocalypse, which, let’s be honest, is more likely than you surviving until post-apocalypse, you could become a monster magician!

      On the other hand, if the apocalypse were Skynet…

    • Krauerking@lemy.lol
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      2 months ago

      Yeah I guess? Is that your only skillset though cause I do tech work, but I also do a lot cheap large batch cooking, grow my own produce and can provide immediate first aid and medical care, all of which, I think, makes me pretty useful.

      Plus a minor hobby in botany specifically poisonous plants makes me somewhat useful for what not to eat.

      You are more than just your work.

    • big_slap@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      you would just be able to repurpose the way you think logically into something else. I’d say you would be more ahead than a lot of others in a catastrophic scenario!

  • Dasus@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    “Oh no, all the scum-masters are gone, who will annoy us with their inane babbling now?”

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Oh it was not a mistake, trust me.

        One once tried showing me a slideshow on what it is they actually do, because the sauna we had for that evening was from their company.

        Guy couldn’t fuckin read the room though and actually went through with his PowerPoint presentation. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how someone could ignore so many social cues from us, the people who had nothing to do with his work, his company, or any work at all. Purely recreational night and dude starts it with that.

        Yuck yuck yuck

        • WFH@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          There are two types of scrum masters. Those who are true believers in agility, and those who think it’s just a fancy bullshit name for “project manager”. The latter tend to be the the fucking worst, unfortunately they’re the most common breed.

          Truth is, a real “scrum master” (or “agile coach” for SAFe 6 people) is at best a part time job, and has only two purposes. With experience and knowledge, help the team towards making their job easier/faster/more interesting/more predictable/more serene through continuous improvement using agile methods as a toolbox (and NOT a fucking dogma), and tell idiotic managers who can’t fucking anticipate a fucking deadline more than 3 days in advance to fuck off and stop being fucking morons teach managers to respect agile principles and have a clear short- and medium-term vision so their needs can comfortably fit the team’s backlog without jeopardizing the team, other priorities or the deadlines.

          The other breed are fucking corporate yes-men who shove work over capacity onto the team and play make-believe-scrum by focusing exclusively on bullshit rituals that serve no actual fucking purpose.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I think that’s probably a good joke, but I haven’t had to suffer corporate culture enough in recent years to understand that.

        Or maybe I’m just too high to be able to

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Part of me misses having a job I could do baked out of my gord.

          Most of me is extremely happy that I have a job where I don’t feel the need to be.

    • lath@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Sorry to disappoint, but landlording as a profession is the likeliest to thrive in a post apocalyptic medium.

        • lath@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It won’t. The new landlords however will get to make their own rules about how to handle their unregulated ownership.

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Land has been fought over since humanity has been around. It wouldn’t be anything new.

            • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              You don’t think indigenous people fought their own battles for their land? That they also fought to keep that land?

              Do you seriously think every nation was magically given to people without warfare deciding who kept it?

        • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          First thing to happen on any revolution or collapse is to burn the debt records and redistribute the land. If some people object they’ll be burned and/or redistributed too.

      • Zoidsberg@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        But without the laws that protect them, we’ll be free to throw them all in the garbage

    • HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I just found out that my landlord doesn’t have a job besides the income from properties. Fucking parasite still won’t fix basic shit

  • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The USA has a bs mythology that it was founded by ‘pioneers’ and that a wild wild west existed. The untold history of the USA is really the story of finance. Those that financed, the joint stock companies that helped to bring immigrants over. The land speculators, and recruiters that brought over Irish and other immigrants over in the 19th century, through money provided by rail and steam companies.
    These type of post-apocalyptic memes perpetuate the stereotype of a self-made country. When in reality financiers from England were offshoring labor to a country with fewer regulations and no copyright/patent laws.

    • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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      2 months ago

      A very USA-centric comment. While it is true that countries that were former colonies have their roots tied to those imperialist projects which definitely involved finance, this is not the case for countries that didn’t start as colonies. The sweat of the subsistence farmer or the feudal peasant/slave was what built the foundations of most countries.

      In a truly post-apocalyptic setting there definitely would not be any need for finance of any sort. Job titles such as the one in the meme above are bullshit jobs that only exist to serve modern consumer capitalism. That is to say, they are not necessary. That’s what this meme is about in my opinion.

      • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The Renaissance in Italy was paid for by the emerging banking industry, the Medici family is a good example of what happened. If you want large public works, and people like Leonardo da Vinci, then you also get families like the Medici. You can’t separate the two. So not just USA-centric.

        “sweat of the subsistence farmer or the feudal peasant/slave was what built the foundations of most countries”, it was also access to different resources. Mining for silver in some areas, sheep and wool production in others, forestry in others … already by the 13th century the Hanseatic League had a large trade network in most of Europe (from the Mediterranean in N. Italy through Germany into the sea and along the coasts of the North sea and the Baltic sea to Norway Sweden Finland and Russia.

        • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          Ok sorry for the snide in that other comment. I think we’re talking slightly past one another. A society without banking or finance is a primitive one, but a society nonetheless. Now, all modern countries are advanced societies, but only current and former colonies started out that way.

          I suppose the question comes down to whether the meme is talking about rebuilding complex society, or just society in general. You seem to be talking of the former, while I speak of the latter. I also think the meme was referring to the latter.

          I’ll end by saying that while historical precedent is a very solid basis for how societies operate, I think it lacks imagination. Who knows what other ways there could be to build complex societies? I think that this is a powerful part of why people are fascinated with post-apocalyptic stories.

        • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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          2 months ago

          Societies did exist before the renaissance, and were a prerequisite for it. Societies existed before the Hanseatic league could conduct trade between them.

  • danekrae@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    One of the ways I try to sell my trade to students, is telling them how important it is for the world. Machining, welding, plumbing, carpentry and so on. All of it would be primus motor to get society back.

    • Tobberone@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Yes! The importance of craftsmen is hard to overstate😀 Along with a few others, of course!

      • danekrae@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I think, that I might find a better alternative. Like scrap, granite and cast iron.

        In a pinch, make a bow drill style lathe using a branch and a rope.

        • jawa21@lemmy.sdf.org
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          2 months ago

          The thing about concrete in a situation like that, though, is it is relatively easy to make new material for construction. That lathe was designed specifically for people to make when they’ve got nothing else and get some actual decent accuracy.

          Also, flip it on its end and you have a drill press to put that scrap together with.