• SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    27 days ago

    I feel like a lot of stuff from ancient times wouldn’t be all that useful. A lot of stuff back then was optimized for a society that didn’t know anything about electricity.

    We know how electricity exists, we know that with some magnets and copper wire we can turn mechanical energy into electricity. It seems like making a wind turbine is something they could’ve made in ancient times, but they didn’t do that simply because they didn’t really know anything about electricity. Some more copper wire and some more magnets and you could drive a pump. Some chemistry and you have a battery, maybe not Li-ion but something that’ll work well enough. Resistors and you can have an electric stove and a heater.

    It always strikes me as odd that preparers aren’t all-in on green technology. If you had some wind turbines and/or solar panels and electric vehicles almost nothing other than communications would really change much. Dependency on complex oil refineries is the biggest weakness of our society. If you live in a rural area that has some farming and has green energy and electric vehicles you’re dependent on very little that’s not produced in your community.

    • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      I meant more how agricultural practices haven’t changed much. New tools have been added, but it is still clear land, plant seed, add water, wait. Don’t plant the same thing two seasons in a row.

      • MrPoopyButthole@lemmy.world
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        27 days ago

        It’s a lot more than that. Soil chemistry will teach you where to look for viable grow sites and what kinds of inputs to add as you go to keep the yields abundant. Ag/chemistry will also teach you about nitrogen fixing plants like legumes and how to crop cycle effectively (if you are monocropping which has its own downsides). Ag will teach you about how climate affects what you can plant and for what times of the year they will be worth growing. Genetics will teach you how to acclimatize non native plants over multiple generations of selective breeding. This is barely touching the surface of the knowledge that can empower you in an off grid setting regarding food production from plants and trees.