3 things to rebuild - Scenario 3!

Wow, good question. Big question!

Okay, first off. Being set back around 1000 years, modern society is gone and technology and agriculture is plunged into a time where we no longer have the skill set to survive. I had a google search at the agriculture and technology of the 1000 AD, and also the societal structure and culture.

The culture is more what we're looking at I think. We will return to small community living. Without extended logistics chains and a heavily structured and multifaceted form of government in place, society will crumble and initially it will be every family for themselves. Then surviving friends or preppers may reach out to find each other and band together. I think these groups will then slowly attract more people and settle somewhere between 20-50 people. 

I guess in a way I've just outlined three steps. 1. Survive and protect family. 2. Find friends and extended family and select a location to live together. 3. Attract supportive and useful people while defending and growing the capability of the group. Things are getting tribal... 

Now that is really the three, very broad steps, for establishing a post-apoc community. But the question stipulates 'rebuilding civilisation'. Now we have to look at if there is a difference between a community and a civilisation. Honestly, I've got other things to do today so no more googling, just bulk text which we can argue and debate later this evening if anyone would like. But off the top of my head, I see the difference between a community and a civilisation as evolution. A community generally exists to preserve a way of life, a civilisation creates a way of life. Civilisations promote learning and wisdom, development of individual and group capability and in a more sentimental way, they have a sense of grandeur. 

So I'll begin my three steps, from the point where a group of let's say 50 people have gathered and are currently beginning to try their hand at farming and raising animals, as their supplies begin to run low. They're surviving, and aren't worried about dying any time soon but there is no plan to improve their quality of life. 

Step 1. Gather, organise and spread useful knowledge. Promote learning within everyone in the group and build up as many skill sets as possible. People with trades or useful skills take on an apprentice, people without skills and without someone to teach them gather books (and PDF documents preppers have printed off and stored in plastic waterproof tubs and stored in their garage) and create a library, then self-teach themselves skills which are lacking from those texts and through a trial and error process become proficient then take on their own apprentice.

Step 2. Have a government. This one is a bit tricky, because I struggle to think of an example of a 'good government'. However I hate to think where society would be without one. Sure, they're mostly incompetent and corrupt. But any group needs organisation, and for lack of a better word, any civilisation will need a government. I say 'have a government' instead of create one, because I feel in the organic growing process of the group I'm talking about, there will be a leader. One of the original family group probably, and a 'royal family' of sorts will be formed from the ashes of these asteroids. Now whether that leader forms a committee and governs as a dictatorship, a communist arrangement or some sort of democracy that's not really important. The important part is the ability to combine group efforts and distribute group resources. 

Step 3. Grow. In smaller groups, everyone must focus on tasks which directly relate to the survival and safety of the group. The bigger the group grows and the more area it controls, the better the economies of scale and the less work will be required on a per-person basis just to make it through each day. 'Growing' includes increasing the size of the area controlled by the group, increasing the amount of people in the group and building trade relationships. Trading is an important part of growing, and through trade we can build economies of scale without having to assimilate everyone into the one 'team'... eg. If a neighbouring group has succeeding in large scale honey production and they're happy to trade but don't like that the group is led by a small unelected group then work out a trade arrangement that benefits both groups, and grow around them. Eventually they may wish to join but forcing them to is going to take time and resources better spent elsewhere, and create a conflict where none needed to exist. 


This topic has really got my brain going, and unfortunately I have to leave the house now.. But I'm excited to read other people's thoughts on this question. 

For me,

1. Hot water, because cold showers should be a crime against humanity under the Geneva convention
2. Establish renewable food source, band together with a few other local survivors and start farming, or establishing a food bank if in built up areas
3. Send scouts out to find other survivors and make contact with other colonies of survivors

I would start with the very basics - assuming that the S has thoroughly HTF, I would assume that we have no communications with anyone not in our immediate vicinity, so we would have no idea of who or what sees us as a potential food source.

1) Secure water source/s. Nothing else will be possible beyond a few days without it.
2) Secure shelter and a means of protecting it – this shelter must protect against weather (which may be significantly changed following asteroid damage) and provide security against displaced people and animals (both wild and escaped-domestic). A huge variable here is whether a suitable structure remains intact or whether something would need to be built from scratch.
3) Assemble and establish a community of survivors (including establishing codes of conduct/laws), preferably consisting of family and trusted friends. It will be impossible to go it alone.

Technically this post is against the rules. But I wanted to bump the thread so people who missed it can contribute.