A realistic description of such a society may be found in Walter M. Miller Jr's science fiction classic A Canticle for Leibowitz. Some excellent reviews of this book may be found here, and, on our own Slashdot, here.
If I remember correctly, the first part of the book concerns a garden variety electronic schematic entitled "Transistorized Control System for Unit Six-B". A monastic religious order has devoted itself to the preservation of this and other "memorabilia". In an attempt to preserve it, one of the younger monks has reproduced it by hand. The reproduction is not an exact copy though; it has been "illuminated" with gold lettering, ivy climbing around the margins, and cherubs. One of my favorite scenes is when the "illuminated" copy is mistaken for the original.
I imagine that the residents of such a world would marvel at the amazing artifacts left by "the Ancients". They might wonder about things like Road, as the inhabitants of John Crowley's book Engine Summer refer to our freeway system. I can hear questions like "What was it used for?" and "I wonder how they lived." (See David Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries for a scholarly discussion of what our descendents might think a toilet seat was used for.)
Of course, perspectives like these are not unfamiliar to us; think about how we view the Egyptians and the Mayans. Makes one wonder...
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A realistic description of such a society may be found in Walter M. Miller Jr's science fiction classic A Canticle for Leibowitz . Some excellent reviews of this book may be found here, and, on our own Slashdot, here.
If I remember correctly, the first part of the book concerns a garden variety electronic schematic entitled "Transistorized Control System for Unit Six-B". A monastic religious order has devoted itself to the preservation of this and other "memorabilia". In an attempt to preserve it, one of the younger monks has reproduced it by hand. The reproduction is not an exact copy though; it has been "illuminated" with gold lettering, ivy climbing around the margins, and cherubs. One of my favorite scenes is when the "illuminated" copy is mistaken for the original.
I imagine that the residents of such a world would marvel at the amazing artifacts left by "the Ancients". They might wonder about things like Road , as the inhabitants of John Crowley's book Engine Summer refer to our freeway system. I can hear questions like "What was it used for?" and "I wonder how they lived." (See David Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries for a scholarly discussion of what our descendents might think a toilet seat was used for.)
Of course, perspectives like these are not unfamiliar to us; think about how we view the Egyptians and the Mayans. Makes one wonder...