Forget about the technology, just the materials.
Let's say that you want to make clear glass. Not something very complicated. Basically all you need is sand and borax.
But wait a minute! What the heck is borax? Well it's a mineral mined in I think two places on the face of the earth, so if you aren't in those two places you don't have borax.
Whether we like it or not, unless global empires like the British empire make a comeback, if we want the modern world then we need global trade.
Let's say that you want to make clear glass. Not something very complicated. Basically all you need is sand and borax.
But wait a minute! What the heck is borax? Well it's a mineral mined in I think two places on the face of the earth, so if you aren't in those two places you don't have borax.
Whether we like it or not, unless global empires like the British empire make a comeback, if we want the modern world then we need global trade.
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This is a topic that I'm extremely interested in, because I like the idea of having a skill set where you can go out and make things yourself using local materials. Sometimes it's possible, and it's actually kind of surprising how much you can do locally if you have the right knowledge/technology. Figuring out how to get iron out of literally just a bog was a planet shattering revelation that made something that was previously fairly useless into an incredibly important asset.
There's a YouTube channel called how to make everything that has gone to some lengths to answer these questions, and for a significantly more limited scope there's another YouTube channel which is absolutely fantastic called primitive technology, Where this guy tries to recreate technologies using only things he was able to make himself with his hands on a plot of land he owns.
There's a YouTube channel called how to make everything that has gone to some lengths to answer these questions, and for a significantly more limited scope there's another YouTube channel which is absolutely fantastic called primitive technology, Where this guy tries to recreate technologies using only things he was able to make himself with his hands on a plot of land he owns.
How to make everything: https://www.youtube.com/@htme
For the first era of the channel, he just tried to make stuff using modern techniques and materials, but afterwards he rebooted the channel trying to make stuff from scratch using materials and tools he created using the previous stuff.
Here's a video from another source of some people in Norway making iron from bogs using the ancient methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80omf7bM3Ek
For the first era of the channel, he just tried to make stuff using modern techniques and materials, but afterwards he rebooted the channel trying to make stuff from scratch using materials and tools he created using the previous stuff.
Here's a video from another source of some people in Norway making iron from bogs using the ancient methods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80omf7bM3Ek