this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2025
118 points (97.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

35549 readers
2080 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Basically the title, you need to use the skills you have now and be a productive member of society.

I don't mean go back and show the wheel or try invent germ theory etc.

For example I'm a mechanic i think I could go back to the late 1800s and still fix and repair engines and steam engines.

Maybe even take that knowledge further back and work on the first industrial machines in the late 1700s but that's about it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I could potentially survive on fishing. Not for fish, I tried that once and sucked. But crabs are stupid. A few times gone for fun and can easily get a few in not very long. If I was having to survive I would probably make bigger/more nets or traps too.

I wonder about spear fishing, have seen a few pretty large fish in shallow water before around here depending on the tide, some were certainly possible to hit, even if you don't hit every time that is a lot of food.

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It is easier to spear fish underwater. You do not have the refractive index of light to deal with.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

That is with modern equipment though

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You did not understand the abstraction. I covered all of human history from hunter gatherer to modern.

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Are there hunter gatherer methods of launching a spear effectively while underwater? Plus wouldn't it be much harder to see the fish.

[–] j4k3@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Scuba or snorkeling – diving leads to spear fishing.It helps to have modern elastics to make a riffle like spear gun. When under water, big fish are easy game. You'll see them easily in the ocean and reasonably well in large rivers and lakes too. With rivers and lakes you can just noodle with large catfish. If you reach into holes and cervices, catfish will bite your hand. It is more like sucking. You just pull them up, no tackle or equipment needed.

Without modern elastics, any bow or torsion based energy storage system would work to make a crossbow like action. I could easily flake a rock to make a crude knife, and fashion something out of some sticks.

I would probably struggle most with my chemistry using organics I find in nature. I know stuff like the best bows are recurved with composite wood. Ultimately, I am loosely aware of the innovations of Watts with the pressure regulation of a steam engine. I know how to make bloom iron. And I know the basics of indirect heating and atmospheric control of the Bessemer process. Additionally, I am aware that the key to lathe precision is a heavy base, and that a lathe screw lead is able to cut a more accurate lathe screw lead, and eventually achieve any machine precision desired. Prussian blue or any dye based pigment, is used with a special thick chisel to hand scrape metal flat. Magnetite is the primary ore for iron. Steel is all about precision control over the carbon content. Heating calcium carbonate is super handy. Boxite requires chemistry to get to the aluminum. High voltage arcs across electrodes in air will make nitric acid, but guano is the most accessible form of nitrates at smaller scales. Potatoes are the most important food source to scavenge.

A general deep curiosity and willingness to explore are the key personality traits. I love learning at a fundamental level where I actually understand stuff. I am not all that bright, just a jack of all trades type person where I have a very broad set of skills and understanding of the world. I'm a swiss army knife – all the tools, but the world's shittiest scissors.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)