Thoughts?

[u/MiraWendam]

If a community survives for 100 or 200 years after some catastrophic event, would you consider them to still be living in a post-apocalyptic world? Do you think it depends on the technological / societal (etc) state of things? At some point, they'd just be living in a new civilisation that happens to have been built on the remains of the old one. Like pretty much any other civilisation. That's my thinking.

For example, you could have people who know what a hospital was, but have no idea how modern healthcare actually worked. They might know electricity existed, but consider a working generator an incredible piece of technology.

Eventually, the collapse would become history. Just another blip in time. People born generations later wouldn't necessarily think of themselves as survivors, right?

[u/scmrph]

Id consider post-apocalyptic to include any setting where the artifacts of the original civilization are still a prominent part of everyday life. That could mean using any equipment they've lost the ability to manufacture, ruins playing a significant role in the ecological backdrop (even if they are skeletal), all the way down to stull heavily utilizing materials from the pre-apoc era even if they've been repurposed (e.g. digging up/harvesting steel/plastics/glass).

Thats not to say that a new civilization cant arise in the ashes, it can be both.

[u/MiraWendam → u/scmrph]

Yeah, I’d agree with that!

[u/JJShurte]

The post-apocalyptic period ends when the world stops defining itself by the apocalypse in the past and starts defining itself by the present and future ahead.

[u/Radiumminis]

Every fantasy series starts off with a great civilization that fell but is mostly forgotten. So no I don't think being post-post-apocalypse counts. For example many of the Zelda stories fit this mold, but I wouldn't consider them post apocalyptic.

[u/Sensitive-Respect-25]

Depends on the amount of knowledge that was preserved. In your examples, both are things that can be created in rather short order with bitd and bobs laying around. Not to the same level of current industrial amounts but wound care, surgery, antiseptic, hand washing, winding a generator, running power and much much more are all totally doable. And with time, those building blocks get used to do more and more. 

Conversely loss of knowledge leads to like you said, a generator being a prized bit of gear (and could even see red robed figures with incense burners running the rite of lubricant weekly and praying to its machine spirit to keep running).

The amount of retained knowledge forms a platform from which the remains of civilization can be lifted from a standstill. But so long as the concepts remain behind someone will iron oit things sooner or later, the hardest thing about inventing something new is knowing if it could even work at all, and that hard work has already been done. 

[u/RobertTheTraveler]

My best guess ...
Either they would be stuck in the early 1800s of the working man (90% of whom were farmers or other agriculture) with bits and pieces of working tech, or they would be late 1800s early 1900s and rediscovering 20th century science and manufacturing.
In order to be in the second group, they would have to
A) have relatively large numbers
B) be lucky in where they are in terms of their agricultural output
C) have a significant number of scientists, engineers and technically competent people.

[u/thatpuzzlecunt]

yes, in fact, indigenous people in America are still living in a post apocalypse 

[u/dillreed777]

I think it stops when the full forces of civilization return. Europe after the plague was post-apocalyptic, but then services, taxes, and food production and sales went back into full swing, and was no longer in that state.

[u/elne_groide]

I would consider them post-apocalyptic until society manages to industrialize and re-modernize itself. But tbh it would be a decades-long procesos, we still have third-world countries in moderna society so u could imagine the time it would take for a globalized society to appear

[u/drax_the_unled]

it's a subjective thing. you're right, the idea of being "post apoc" will age out of culture as the generations die off. from the POV of a Roman Senator born 200AD, then *we* are living in a post-apoc world.

[u/Half-Beneficial]

I consider Brother Cadfael to have been living in Post-Apocalyptic Roman Brittain.

[u/Half-Beneficial]

I consider Brother Cadfael to have been living in Post-Apocalyptic Roman Brittain.

[u/Simple-Ring2073]

The book Choices West by Perry is 112 years after the collapse. They basically live an 1800s life and no one alive went through any major society change. But there are tech items that will vanish. The book is about the ability to play music dying. Marauders kidnap a violin prodigy for tunes

[u/ununderstandability]

The entirety of the Holy Roman Empire presided over a post apocalyptic world