
Could science continue even if a civilisation breaks down? - Pica_soO
Im just wondering, would it be possible for science and progress to walk on, after democracy and peace are gone? If so how?
======
deftnerd
You ask about science after civilization has broken down, but then also
mention after democracy and peace are gone.

If you're thinking of a lawless Mad Max style apocalypse, most likely sciences
will be regulated to discovering things that were already known but then lost
to humanity. You could see it like the unrest after the Roman Empire fell (the
Dark Ages) where lots of knowledge was lost and had to be learned again from
scratch.

It is entirely possible that things will still be recognizable as a
civilization even if democratic institutions are gone and even if a nation is
at war.

There are pursuits of sciences under a monarchy and even authoritarian
dictatorships. During time of conflict, science might focus on military
technologies (which often have later civilian applications) or on technology
to help pacify the population (agriculture, comfort goods, surveillance
technologies).

~~~
Pica_soO
You could prevent loss of science- by uploading a wikipedia to any device or
persistent depos.

Or you could encode knowledge in a flue-bacteria.

~~~
cauterized
Wikipedia barely scratches the surface of the scientific knowledge that would
be lost in a breakdown of civilization. It also requires a certain level of
technology to be able to read a digital version, or a large warehouse to store
a print one.

------
tbihl
Hopefully you're still interested in your question, because I'm afraid you
really haven't gotten much of an answer.

Assuming you're in the US or Western Europe, you need to recognize that
societal collapse wouldn't look like the middle East or Venezuela, where
things are a fishbowl of chaos in a stable world. In the US, just-in-time
logistics means we're fragile to the point where a week of trucks not making
deliveries might be sufficient to stall out the country so it can't start
again. Grocery stores have minimal extra stock, but we can work around that.
Vehicle repair businesses can't sustain operations for even a week before they
run short on parts. Parts start breaking down and people don't show up for
work, and now your power plants aren't working. From there, you need to hope
there's someone who can swoop in to save our asses, because with broken down
vehicles, depleted gas stations, no electric grid, and all the societal chaos
that ensues, we won't be self-starting ourselves. Maybe, just MAYBE, we could
plug vital electric loads into aircraft carriers and submarines long enough to
restore order, but it's a race against time, because there are plenty of vital
components that could go at any time.

Science would proceed in a different direction, with agriculture and botany
and did preservation and hunting and animal domestication being the fields
where advances are made. Backing up Wikipedia might work for a decade, if your
computer and storage media hold out, and if you can defend your windmill/PV
panels from armed looters, and if you have the necessary hardware to make
necessary repairs to wear components. But you'll probably have more pressing
matters, like eating.

And it's a long climb back from the bottom. A lot of our important industries
require extreme precision and tolerate few or no material defects. In modern
America, fighting off complacency to preserve top notch supply chains is no
small feat. If people are worried about the next meal for anyone in their
family, you can forget about all that. And then we get to the uncomfortable
reality that we may not be able to sustain quite so many billion people
without mechanized farming and engineered crops.

There will always be science and education, but it's hard, when living in a
stable society, to recognize just how expensive it is to take large numbers of
your smartest and most capable people, and allow them to produce nothing that
can be utilized right now, because they're investing their time in very
abstract things that may pay off in future decades. That's why smart kids from
poor families so often don't go to college, too.

------
nnn1234
The Question I think is better dissected along demographic barriers and
defining what you mean when you say Science.

If there is no one here to practice science, then the word loses its meaning.(
tree falling in the woods analog)

If we take the lesser of your dystopia, Civilization exists its just not
democractic nor peaceful, Here I give you the example of the Klingons (Star
trek nerd that I am :) )

~~~
Pica_soO
Yes, maybe my question was to broad. Science as in, furthering the common
endeavors of the species, instead of science as tool for dissent solvent.

Meaning, more strange things, less besiege weapons.

------
mrits
We'd all be more productive without the internet to distract us.

