Measuring from early adulthood, there's basically two active generations at any one time that are capable of passing the material culture down. That's the window for reliable cultural transmission. Some of the stuff the hippies rescued from extinction was so far gone only a handful of people in their eighties still had a mastery of the trade in question, so they really plucked those from the jaws of ruin.
"So we can hit reset on that one. We are now, once again, two generations from technological extinction"
Can you explain this a bit more? What specifically is causing that timeliness of two generations? Is it another cycle of "old ways dying out"?
Measuring from early adulthood, there's basically two active generations at any one time that are capable of passing the material culture down. That's the window for reliable cultural transmission. Some of the stuff the hippies rescued from extinction was so far gone only a handful of people in their eighties still had a mastery of the trade in question, so they really plucked those from the jaws of ruin.
Oh ok, I see, that makes me think of those Fox Fire books!
Indeed!
This post was a feast! Thank you.