There is a popular perception that technology-dependent civilizations are worse at handling a collapse than others, because they are so dependent on complex systems that might fail. It seems intuitive and plays into the collapse anxiety that rich Westerners, dependent on technologies we don’t understand, often feel. But it does not seem to be correct. When relatively developed Yugoslavia imploded during the wars of the early 1990s, people there were able to apply innovative solutions to maintain at least a minimum level of hygiene, safe water, and energy for heating and cooking. When civil war
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