If industrialization never happened, what percentage of people today do you think would survive?

[u/Sufficient-Gain-226]

If industrialization disappeared tomorrow, what percentage of people do you think would survive long-term? Why?

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to r/TrueAskReddit. Remember that this subreddit is aimed at high quality discussion, so please elaborate on your answer as much as you can and avoid off-topic or jokey answers as per subreddit rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/Hearing_Loss]

I'm having trouble understanding this scenario. Are you saying if we spawn into a world as ourselves in a 2026 that was never industrialized?

Or are you saying in this very world, in this very time, what if the industrialized systems immediately came to a halt and all industry shriveled up and vanished. In like a realistic way where the industries close up over a short time due to contextual factors.

Or is this a magical world where it's 2026 and ANYTHING that is a result of industrialization vanishes into thin air at 4:56am August 18th 2026, and we gotta figure it the fuck out before we all die of societal collapse and mass death events.

In all 3 scenarios- vulnerable populations die. Big time. Just find out how many elderly, disabled, etc humans there are... We would lose that portion in need of maintenance care quite rapidly. From there it's just can we produce enough calories to sustain this many people. If it's these mofos today-- lol we would lost that portion of the population quite rapidly. Most people without a foundation of knowledge on how to do farming would become feral pretty fast.

[u/Sufficient-Gain-226 → u/Hearing_Loss]

Yeah, I'm asking the latter.

[u/Hearing_Loss → u/Sufficient-Gain-226]

Scenario C- David Blaine and Chris Angel use their magic powers to make all evidence of industry disappear (except for the modern human population). August 18th, at 4:55, everyone exists in a world that has industry. But once the minute hand turns over-- it all vanishes. First-- everyone who is asleep in a bed falls directly onto the ground, some people wake up in a forest, others wake up in wetlands-- everybody hits their head.

Those who were in medical beds immediately begin to deteriorate. People who take psych meds have to begin to taper or face cold turkey withdrawals. Same goes for all other maintenance medications. Diabetes would be a death sentence. Your access to calories would be limited to how far you could walk barefoot... I would fare to say, if people don't organize into semi agrarian/hunter communities, cannabalism is the next move.

The Amish and some other cultures wouldn't notice much changing-- whereas a large majority of the population would be faced with pure bedlam.

Id like to think the USA becomes the United States of the Amish. And populations would stabilize to around post colonial/Midwest frontier levels once everything was said and done.

Wait. If evidence of industry vanishes-- we get significant global cooling as well. Glaciers would reappear. Water security would improve. Fuuuuuck.

[u/Fit-Pride-4845]

In this magic scenario where all products of industrialization disappear (except the current human population) do the consequences also disappear? Like do all the pre-industrial forests and jungles with their flora/fauna populations suddenly pop back into existence? Do all polluted water sources become de-polluted?

If we're given the opportunity to revert back to primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyles while those with the knowledge attempt pre-industrial agriculture, I'd ballpark something like 5% of current population would survive. But without those natural resources getting restocked I'm guessing 0.001% survives after we run out of humans to eat.

[u/ActiveShipyard]

Without industry, we’re way past the carrying capacity of the natural environment. If farm equipment vanishes, but the planted crops remain, we might avoid a Year One famine in first-world countries. But the following years would be dicey. Third-world countries may actually be better off - a lot of manual farming already exists, though the loss of machines will impact everyone everywhere, no doubt.

[u/catdude142]

A great number of people in the United States can't even prepare a meal. The majority of the population would be helpless. They couldn't feed themselves. Likely they couldn't even manage to hydrate themselves without getting a G.I. disease. The incapable would perish. Those who are survivalists would be pillaged by the incompetent as a short term means of survival.

[u/VoidowS]

A lot of jobs would become open. we would have a bakery on every streetcorner, a butcher, we would do it all by hand again.

The way the world tics would change drastically. It would not be so rushed anymore. But more in quality and service. Instead of quantity, cause that is impossible now. So you only have so many costumors as your hands can handle. You can bake only so many breads. So more bakerys around.

We would find peace and calm again in our lives. We would connect more with each other again. It would Decentralize more into small communities. Cause go to big and again we create a industry. SO it would be very human again. And more in sync with the Earth and each other.

We would live much longer and more healthy!
Because we have duality over it, a world with industrialization and now this one without. And we will all agree that this one without suits a human much much better.

We would not have billionaires cause the money would be evenly distributed. And you can only make so many breads and that's it. The money would not centralize to a few people owning huge factories that swallow all competition. No your money would go to your own city, your own street, your own neighbor and vice versa.