How Could It All Just Disappear?
That’s often an argument—or at least something in the back of people’s minds—when the topic of lost civilizations or lost knowledge are brought up.
It’s unfathomable for some that an advanced civilization could be wiped out without a trace, except through stories passed on by word of mouth, which are eventually believed to be myths rather than true tales.
But, when disaster strikes, how many people say “Grab as many books as you can and run for your lives!” versus how many say “Grab the kids and go!”
We typically value life above all else and when disaster strikes, the survival instinct kicks in, so the thought of preserving life takes an even higher precedence than it might at any other time.
The thought is to save lives and rebuild later.
Of course, it can be hard to rebuild without all the knowledge and tools, which were probably left behind or, in some cases, just not possible to move.
Think about it. Can you rebuild your desktop computer from scratch, if there were no place to buy parts?
And that’s what happens in a major disaster, especially if you were more advanced than neighboring civilizations and didn’t share everything with them. Or, if the disaster is a worldwide phenomena. Then, everybody loses stuff. Experts are killed. Knowledge is lost. Tools are destroyed and lost. People that could fix things no longer have the parts and tools to do so. They may become scarce. People may fight over them, and then they get lost or destroyed again.
As resources become scarce, people think of their immediate survival and not of the future. So, things get worse before they get better. And knowledge gets lost over time as people with the knowledge are killed or otherwise die.
So, it may be unthinkable but, yes, it can all just disappear.
I cant even imagine that happening.