What would happen if…

We had a well deserved day out today. A lovely morning by the fire and then we went to a nearby town for a coffee and a sandwich and a browse through some shops. It was lovely to not be in any sort of mad panic about buying things, I bought some craft supplies for making a few Christmas decorations and looked at possible gifts but mainly we just rambled through town.

Then we went to the cinema and watched The day the Earth Stood Still. Warning – If you have not seen the movie yet then don’t read any further because I will be giving away the ending although you may have seen or read the old science fiction story anyway.  We had fun on the way home discussing what would happen if we lost all technology as the earth did in the film ending, if we had no telephones, no vehicles, no power lines transmitting energy etc.

We have become so accustomed to easily travelling about as and when we want. just think how it could take for a letter to reach friends or family you thought nothing of hopping in the car to go see?  Staying in touch these days is so easy with a text or email no matter how far away we live from each other. Thanks to computers, social networking and blogs, we even stay in touch with people we have never met in person.

How many towns, if any, would have enough food being grown locally to survive? How long would it take for local food industries to get underway?  How would people even get clean drinking water? We have lost so many of our very basic life skills. Obviously we have different set of contemporary life skills now – how to use a computer, how to walk through cities avoiding eye contact etc.

I don’t mean this as a depressing piece, we just started wondering about these things. I think it’s great that so many people are interested in learning the more basic life skills like growing food and making clothes, even if just to keep those skills alive.

Hurray for the basics…