Hard to say. There is pretty good reason to argue that losing about 30% of the European population in a few years (black death) is one of the direct causes of the Renaissance. It shook up the established social order and set ways of thinking. It also freed up a lot of land ownership, allowing a lot more people to get an economic foot in the door.

It would all depend on what happens, but a plague would probably be one of the least likely causes of "a new dark age". A serious energy crisis, leading to intense warfare, famine, and civil disorder, would be a more likely spark for something like that.

 

Somehow, the human spirit would prevail. We would find a way, and all of the knowledge that came before us would still be here.

I just started a thread in the Politics side about a political "pandemic" because whereas I truly believe we as humans would survive a pandemic, I'm not so sure we stand a ghost of a chance once the books start to burn and we lose our civil rights.

 

do cds burn??

 

Yes they do, and they also make good replacements for clay pigeons for skeet shooting.

 

As Europe emerged from the dark ages, they were only getting back to where the greeks and romans were centuries earlier. I agree, the Plague probably caused the onset of the Dark Ages, and this is why I think it could happen again. Back then, there was significantly less technology to "lose", yet we lost our way. ALL of the things in modern life, require more knowledge and manufacturing capacity than we could scrounge up in a post-apocalyptic world.

Do you really think a pandemic is not likely? With global air travel, the right disease could spread quickly, possibly even before we know it's out there. What would have taken years, could now be done in days!

 

Yes, absolutely. They burn just as easily as books.

 

You missed my point completely. You are also wrong.

The Black Death struck in the 14th century. That was the very end of what is often referred to as the Dark Ages. Within a generation after the Black Death, the Renaissance had begun. The plague helped to end the Dark Ages, not begin it.

 

The onset of the Dark Ages predates the plague. The prevalent feudal caste system and the oppressive power of the church-state were, in part, responsible for the Dark Ages, not any disease or natural disaster.

 

I'd be more worried about a different type of disaster - an asteroid strike of the right size would definitely be the end of us, the items we build and probably most of what we ever recorded...at least the cochroaches would have more space....

 

I stand corrected, thanks. I know i should have spent less time sleeping throught European history. I was watching a show called Survivoman, and it occured to me, that I've never even tried to start a fire without matches. I've seen it done, but never tried it.