(ETA: This original post will be updated based on input from below, with shoutouts, SO, to members) 1. WARNING - The purpose of this thread is to give answers to the question. NO Debate! No rebuttals, no obfuscation! 2. The setting: apocalyptopia. Everything is gone, down to the last scrap of wood, paper and cloth. There will be no going back to anything past or present. Hierarchies, even merit based, are gone. There are no Trades, Class, Race, or Gender distinctions. Ages might/not be separated. Labor training will be on-the-job only. SO: JTW 3. Resources: Kids, adults, one shelter for everything, food/water, and electronic media with the font-of-all-knowledge, ongoing and accessible, 24/7. No money, nowhere to put anything, and nothing to spend it on. 4. Assumptions (many more to come): Media is sound and video, and is interactive. All information and technology is now a spontaneuosly manifested AI, and sustains itself entirely. SO: StagB, Jann 'Human educators' are already prepared to implement your idea. There will be no desks, pencils, paper or books as such. There will be complete information, communication, audio-visual, and us. There is no structure or program as yet. Think outside the incinerated box. The kids are waiting... watching us. We start arguing, they start crying. We need their trust. 5. The question: How do we begin? Points made thus far: responsibilities for creating the new world. SO: StagB What about text and writing, and how to use the system? :SG
Ok, I interpreted this as "how to educate the next generation in a post apocalypse world with limited resources and little to no societal structure" In this case, as a writer, I would research ancient time periods and how they educated their people. spoiler alert: they separated them by trade/gender/class/etc. Separation at these periods were productive. I would separate them by trade as well. There is little point (with all that you described) in having various classes/courses. Younger children would be taught relevant history (what worked, what did not work, how we got to now), and older children should be taught how to contribute to society. the adults should be grouped by trade and offer knowledge and experience in their trade. I'm still thinking on this! I have to get ready for work, so I'll probably have more when I can actually sit down and think more on it!
Because a new society has to be started, I would begin by reviewing historical civilizations from day one and discussing what didn't work and why they failed. After that, would be teaching necessary trades and responsibilities for creating the new world Lots to think about tho, that's just off the top of my head
Noted clarifications above, thanks! I'll be thinking about the 'separation' issue. ATP no one is separated unless working away from the community. Even some small kids will go with adults to work sites, so I'll figure out how to clarify that. That's why this is the Question Phase - me figuring out what the question really is, based on y'all's points being made.
Thanks, I'll definitely figure out how to show how history has been considered, and amend OP. I'll clarify the distinction between labor (that's OTJT) and civic/academic responsibility (EDU). Keep those good points coming.
I would probably limit if not eradicate technology. We are happier and healthier mentally without it or at least it being a minimal and limited part of society
Has this all happened suddenly? By that, I mean do the adults remember a different sort of life (like our present life?) Or is this several generations after the apocalypse? I suspect if it's happening soon after the apocalypse, people will be wanting to return to the time before (maybe without making the mistakes that caused the apocalypse.) However, if it's generations after the apocalypse, chances are they'll be more focused on making do with what they have in front of them, and won't be motivated by philosophy all that much. A major question does arise, however. If everything is gone, wood, paper cloth, etc, then how come they have all that technology? Who is keeping that going? In a real apocalypse, that would be the first thing to go, as the infrastructure supporting it is intensely complicated, global and modern. After an apocalypse, we wouldn't have media going 24/7. We wouldn't have media at all. Better hope there are a few wood, paper and cloth books lying around, and somebody who can read them, otherwise we're going to have to reinvent the wheel. The exception would be if only a portion of the human population has been deprived of all the wood paper cloth stuff, and is being manipulated by another segment that still has all the technology, etc. (And the worker infrastructure to support it ...scientists, delivery and repair people, people who produce the media content, people who produce the raw materials needed to build the devices, engineers, etc.)
Noted, thanks. Technology plays a critical role in the story, and is limited to mostly large public places (ref #3). There are tablets as necessary. Otherwise, there are no personal possessions, whatsoever.
Thanks I'll clarify the points above. Part of the suspension-of-disbelief is in the previous chapters. I can beg your trust, or provide (PM) you a link to that part.
My main problem, however, is who is creating and maintaining this 24/7 media thing? Somebody must be controlling it. Electronic media doesn't work without a lot of infrastructure behind it. Just simple things like power (electricity) is needed for the stuff to function. The power goes off, you've had it. And electrical power doesn't just 'happen.' Huge companies now exist to ensure a supply—and that includes workers on the ground to fix things when they go wrong, replace worn cables, etc. And somebody has to manufacture the hardware. Even if you've got batteries, the batteries eventually run out or run down. And yes, even solar ones will need maintenance and occasional replacement. The content of the media will also need renewal, or it will just be repetitive till the device dies. Once the device dies, it will need to be replaced. If it isn't replaced, then that's it. No media. And if is IS replaced, how does that happen in a society where nobody has anything, there are no workers, etc. These are basic questions I think you need to cover before anything else in your story. If they are already covered—maybe even part of your plot—fair enough. If not....
Good. (See notes within your reply) I'm not sure how to talk (OP) about an issue of the story without drowning y'all in the entire story. I did have an epiphany. All the discussion in this thread will go almost directly into story dialog that serves my dreaded infodump! Pick a character name and former occupation and I will use it in this part of the scene. (Before I began writing, I considered making this an interactive episode based story )
The issue of technology is entirely dealt with by its own collective sentience. No human is involved in sustaining or maintaining it. It is simply provided, like air. Humans, with the aid of information, and autonomous regulation, decide things collectively. Just by talking about them, they are casting their vote. Seeker (AI) is observing and recording every moment in the world, not just humans, for its own analysis. Its goal is for humanity to thrive sustainably without it - a process that will require symbiosis. Seeker is currently preventing an extinction class event, a burden it will be rid of when it gives itself over to collective humanity, through symbiosis (a long way off).
So they live in some sort of high-tech shelter like Logan's run, but with no clothes? I'm having trouble wrapping my mind sufficiently around the premise to offer any useful suggestions. "No wood, no paper," but Jesus wrote in the dust.
Hardly, they have just enough time to blow up anything like a giant inflatable and slap neo-roman concrete over it. After that it's all just people trying to keep each other alive, but there's information and communication. There's also a plan, if we choose to follow it. Funny that you mention Jesus. There's no messiah in TNT, but I did make a reference to wandering 40 days in the wilderness. Clothing and fiber first collected impact glass and microshards of iron crystal. People were pretty chafed and miserable in clothing. They had no hesitation, and many were relieved, to strip out of their cloak of thorns when all fiber began to oxidize, even combust. Self preservation trumps humiliation every time. Except for the buxom heartthrob in the exquisite Victoria's Secret set. She hopped around squealing about how expensive it was, until they finally got ahold of her to strip them off, just as the plastic bits were melting. Lucky, because burns and rash mean fever, and fever means death. She's happy to be naked, but unhappy that no one cares. The dust you mention is still a problem. It is made of shards and impact glass that still chafes, but not like emery paper - if you don't rub. Wait until you see what they are wearing in the apocalyptopia! You think they're naked now. They're deliriously ecstatic to wear it too. Funny old world. I recall one of the time travel movies where the remaining kids are sitting in front of an AI hologram fragment, at the end. And that's all they had for school. I'm trying to do a little better than that. Strip education down to just the people and information AI. What would the curriculum be if we separate training from learning how to think for ourselves? Help me climb out of my incinerated box. I really don't want to handwave education, not this time.
Time Machine! The Librarian. Was that his name? He was cool! The rest of the movie, meh. Liked the book
