The more a civilization becomes technology dependant, the more fragile it gets.
A huge solar flare aiming towards Earth and the whole world can be short-circuited...We are very dependant on electricity and if it fails...
We have all kinds of ways to store information, but the more we advance, the less likely it can last (written scriptures on old monuments have lasted centuries..how about DVD's, paper, etc...?).
If only a few survive a catastrophe (supposing they can resist the microbes most of us are incapable of), even if they didn't forget what it was before, they will return years back....mainly because they're so few left. For a group to remain technologically capable, there must be a very large number of people (for the markets to be kept alive, for exchanges to continue, for variety and options to influence many people, there must be millions of survivors). This is also a reason I don't believe in colonies elsewhere.
Toffler's Future Schock is about how quickly things are replaced, how shortly things last....
It could very well be extra-terrestrials visiting Earth in a million years, won't see a thing of our civilization, but well of the earlier Egyptian empire...
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Technology = Fragility
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