Much of what we know will be lost if a major shift happens to societies at large. People get so enmeshed in trying to survive from day to day the trades, technology and much more, more or less gets set aside because it isn't that important. Surviving is the most critical criteria. Trying to stay safe and getting enough to eat takes precedent over all else.
When Rome fell it lost much of its technologies, and the trades themself. Most trades were learned from a master technician or tradesman and through an apprenticship which lasted for years. Most of the Masters themselves underwent apprentiships such as Leonardo DaVinci and others during their youth. After Rome fell eventually the tradesmen died and didn't pass on to others what it took a lifetime to learn. Two or three generations later most of the trades were lost. Much of the technology was lost as well because those who knew how things worked died to.
Medicine, navigation, mathmatics, science, hydraulics, irrigation, farming technology, carpentry, stone masonry, ship building, and many more disciplines were lost. We don't know for sure what all was lost but it was substantial. The world fell into a period called the Dark Ages and that timeframe lasted more than a thousand years. Slowly beginning in a serious way toward recovery starting about 1200 AD. Men began again to learn and it took the next five hundred years to catch up to where they once were. However, many arts and knowlege were lost forever when civilization was destroyed in the known world. Today we guess as to how the ancients did things. Such as building the pyramids. How did they lift stone blocks that weighed many tons into place without internal combustion or steam powered engines.
They had running water in their homes, in the ancient Mycenaes, Rome, Egypt, and the Mayans were able to channel entire rivers under their cities so as to have ready access to fresh water and sewage disposal. They understood the concepts of irrigation and bridge building. It was all lost.
Ninety eight percent of all the scientists that have ever lived in recorded history on earth are walking around right now. That in itself should tell you something. The bubble is about to burst again and this time it may thrust us all into another Dark Ages. It doesn't have to be a nuclear war, it can be economical as well as droughts and no food or water for a long period of time. One entire growing season on the earth not fullfilled will take people into a savagery unknow to most of us with only a few exceptions. People in Borneo and the Amazon might not feel the effects as much.
Caseyboy
