Post Apocalyptic Man Made Ruins and Weapons

Regarding energy, bio-gas is pretty easy to make, just not a lot of profit-motive for industry to pursue serious development. Sell the product every day, or sell the equipment to make the product now and again... and have people figure out how to make their own...

Bio-gas could be used for anything from steam to internal combustion, and it's a byproduct of any gathering of people and livestock. If memory serves, the stuff left over from cooking can still be used as fertilizer...

Without going into the overall issues in this thread, I'm reminded of the story about Albert Einstein, who allegedly was once asked what weapons he thought would be used in World War Three. He said he didn't know, but he did know what weapons would be used in World War Four:

Sticks and stones.

caw

I have a question, what makes a mutant a mutant, in your world?

Are they still genetically similar to humans that the two species could, in theory, have children? If you're looking for a plausible way your protagonists could overcome your antagonists, a hybrid child could be your answer.

Also, if you have mutants with abilities, who's to say that magic (spell casting, etc.) doesn't work? maybe your humans found some references on the craft that the mutants know nothing about and they use it to their advantage.

SampleGuy said:

My setting takes place three thousand years in a future after a comet has destroyed the entire human civilization. How long can buildings last to that age, including leftover technology and weapons? I don't want to make the same mistake as the movie, Battlefield Earth did.

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LOTLOF said:

Stone buildings can last for thousands of years. Not only the Pyramids, the Coliseum, and the Parthenon but thousands of statues, roads, and lesser buildings are proof of that. Wood framed houses will disintegrate within a hundred or two hundred years. Steel and glass skyscrapers would last longer but likely fall apart within a few hundred years.

As for technology surviving three thousand years... well, if it's an arid environment metal tools might last that long. Would circuitry and wiring remain intact? Hard to imagine, but couldn't say for sure.

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jjdebenedictis said:

Concrete could probably last reasonably well; the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians used concrete as a mortar, and there are some who think the blocks of the Great Pyramids were poured concrete (this idea is not widely accepted, mind you.)

The Roman Pantheon, below, is concrete, as is most of the Colosseum. From Wikipedia: "Almost two thousand years after it was built, the Pantheon's dome is still the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome."

Most technology, however, will be long dead. Simple, durable things like leather or concrete or stone tools can last a long time in the right conditions, but delicate things like motors and computers won't.

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I'd recommend the television mini-series and the two seasons of 'Life After People'. If not tended to, most of the buildings of modern human civilisation won't last inside of 200 years - 100 for most. Nature will very quickly reclaim the concrete jungle - just look at Pripyat in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. 20-25 years after the comet hits, most towns and cities will look like outdoors arboretums, and 3000 years later you'll hardly notice anything was even there. Concrete these days isn't made in the same way as the ancients made it, and can succumb to all sorts of damage; untended, this will quickly reduce the life expectancy of skyscrapers and other modern buildings. Another issue is the lightning rods used to protect tall buildings...once rusted and gone, you're looking at multi-storey bonfires waiting to happen.