To think it's amazing that...

[Thatballwasin]

We've spent tens of thousands of years wiping our arses on leaves etc and now a tablet is a "must have". We've only had all this stuff for such a relatively short period of time and yet I'd be clueless if it all disappeared. Totally clueless about what to do with a flint and with no Mr Google to help would be totally stuffed.

How philosophical

YANBU.

I will however out myself as U as I'd be fecked with a flint!

I'm not sure what wiping your arse on leaves has to do with tablets, and I recommend that you don't buy one if you feel this is a potential use of them- it could be dangerous, not to mention expensive.

Pretty sure that's the way with most inventions. Like electricity, or fire for example. Fuck going back to living without them!

I know. Thank fuck for the wheel. When I read anything about early man, my first reaction is to think how basic life was, get an infected scratch and you were buggered. But they actually knew so much more than I do in so many practical ways. Come the zombie apocalypse, there will be fuck all use for an ability to format an Excel spreadsheet.

It's progress, I'm glad our ancestors embraced progress..

I've thought that recently.

If there was ever an apocalypse, the majority of the survivors would die because we don't know how to well, survive anymore.

I can't even watch medieval life on tv let alone live it.

If I was this age in say 1940, I'd be a lonely, slovenly cow living in squalor, I could not be fucked with all that housework and hard living. Give me microwave meals and a dyson any day.

I watch Ray and Bear, I'd survive the apocalypse init!

I visited an occupation museum in Latvia. It was full of amazing things people had made while incarcerated - handmade cloth woven from thread (not knitted), someone had even made a violin. So amazingly resourceful but this was 70 years ago and even then the people had more basic skills. I am reading two books at the moment - the first one of the Little House on the Prairie series to DD where they had to make practically everything (DD thought it hilarious that Laura was six before she's seen more than one house standing together and had never been in a shop) and have just started reading the zombie book "the girl with all the gifts", it's led me to think what my reality would be in that situation (eaten probably, I can't run fast)

I think it's even more than not knowing how to survive anymore. We've set up our lives that so much is dependent on technology that so much doesn't exist without it. I bought an ebook for my kindle yesterday but if one day the lights go out then that book basically doesn't exist any more. Even a relatively short time ago you could leave enough to have a reasonable ability to fix up your own car if you chose to, now there is so much computerised stuff within it would be pretty much impossible.

are we not supposed to be using leaves anymore ?

But just think how fun it will be trying to explain it all to our grandkids

We never even had internet in the street let alone in the palm.of our hands.

If we wanted to go to the cinema whats one of those Nana? we would have to get a local newspaper whats.one of those Nana? from a neighbour whats one of those Nana?

If I went back in time to a pre-digital era, let alone a pre-industrial or pre-agricultural one, I would be able to describe the tools we use (assuming a universal translator) and even (up to a point) explain how they worked, but there are very few inventions that I'd actually be able to reproduce.

The ways that my 21st century knowledge could actually help are very limited:
Sanitation, hand-washing.
Crop rotation.
I could describe the concept of a windmill or watermill.

Er... that's about it. I could describe many modern wonders but would not be able to recreate any of them.

You would manage a sundail, surely?

I have never wiped my arse with a tablet. Just saying.

yes but they just didnt have the skill they had the time too.

Im very crafty and can knit and sew and bake and turn my hand to anything really. but when do i get time? i could be sitting here sewing something now except i work from home and have to clear it away at the end of every session which means the setting up and putting away takes more time than the activity.

I think if i were in the 40s id be making dresses for everyone and growing my own veg

I reckon I'd've been a prostitute if I'd lived in Mediaeval times. Too short-sighted to do more than potter around a boudoir hovel & too randy to say No. I could have been the King's mistress as I've always managed to get off with the blokes I fancied with any luck

DH would have died in childhood from asthma/allergies/chest infections

I've been on a foraging weekend. Come the zombie apocalypse I shall be able to make a delightful salad.

I shall follow the example of Arthur Dent, and become the village sandwich maker.

I could crochet and weave on an old-fashioned hand loom. I could build a hand loom. I know how to dye wool with plants. I can know how to shear a sheep. I know how to extract metal ores and turn them into metal things. I know how to turn crude oil into different fuels. I know how to make pottery. (Worked in a pottery as a teenager). I can cook. I'm awake at night. So I could take the night watch to look out for marauders as I'm always bloody awake at night. I can make jam, fudge and tablet. I can do pyrography and carpentry, so could build wooden things. I have architecture skills so could design houses.

I would probably end up being a cake and sweetie maker!!

I did know how to extract a mild form of aspirin from a certain tree, but that seems to have fallen out of my head, so I need to talk to my Granny again.

I can't grow my own food though. Plants look at me and shrivel. I'd have to barter my skills for food.

I can milk cows by hand too. Odd skill set I seem to have amassed over the years??!!

There ain't nothing you can't find out now at the touch of a button ( or 2) remember the good old days when you would try and think of something ( a song name, an actors filmography, etc) and it would be on the tip if your tongue.... Now just google associated words and bingo! I miss being annoyed for hours by things I would try and remember

Remember life before mobile phones? Wasn't that long ago you had to rely on phone boxes and making sure you had a 2p coin to hand. Think how much they have revolutionized life.

YANBU. My grandad joined the navy 100 years ago to work in the "radar room" - for the rest of his life he was fascinated by gadgets - but the height was probably an electronic chess game. My mum was sad he didn't live long enough for PC's, email, the Internet et al as he'd have been in hi element.