Even crazier is that the more complex the society was, the less likely it may be that it survives a catastrophe if it’s big enough.

Think about it, if we are all hyper specialized, and let’s say 20 of us have the knowledge each of 20 parts of building something large and complex (say a power plant). But then 10 of us are killed. Nobody can build a power plant anymore. The skills and knowledge are gone. What the remaining 10 know is useless without the other half.

It truly shifts how the system and society work, which is wild. We become one huge collective organism. And suddenly, because the cells cannot survive on their own, the entire organism and all of the cells can be killed with the loss of just one organ.

This is how I analogies the possibility of an advanced civilization in history being destroyed and society essentially having to “reset.” The scary thing, is that the disaster might not have to be totally in order for it to still do multiples of damage in the fall out. Consider how many critical skills may be lost completely if just 15% of the population are lost in a sudden event. And what if it resulted in losing another 15% as fallout, but that reaches a critical threshold and now we have lost even MORE skills and knowledge, and its spirals out of control to 90% of the population. Where our ability to simply keep our basic needs and critical systems functioning, completely breaks down.

Just wild to consider.