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Jul 12, 2019 at 21:36 comment added cmaster - reinstate monica @ksbes The point is, we still have engineers, and the ideas of steam technology are spread throughout the population. Today, a bunch of engineers with all their training and tools can design a new steam locomotive in basically no time. Yes, they will need to do some experiments. Yes, they will need to measure some stuff to make sure the finished locomotive won't blow up in their faces. But they will get there within a few years. However, for an answer to this question, the very idea of steam technology, and the ability to build the machines that build the tools must have died out.
Jul 12, 2019 at 13:50 comment added Mark Wood See "Forgetfulness" by Don A. Stuart. If nobody needs to think about technology X for millennia, the knowledge dies with the makers and the manuals get lost.
Jul 12, 2019 at 11:36 comment added Walter Laan en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence is really a macro-survival strategy!
Jul 12, 2019 at 7:58 history edited Odalrick CC BY-SA 4.0
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Jul 12, 2019 at 7:51 comment added Odalrick @ksbes That applies to us today; but imagine if there was no demand for new products, of any kind. I'm describing the extinction of engineers as a profession, simply because they were so good that for a few generations there was no need for them.
Jul 12, 2019 at 7:41 comment added ksbes It happens much faster in reality: about 1-2 engineers generation (25-30 years each, in total 25-100 years of liftime). But it is not that dramatic: new engineers are able to redesign mashines much faster than it was at first time. Think of morden locomotive production company need to build steamers for some reason. They will not be able to start production at immediately, and it will take couple of years (or even more) to design some relyable model. But still they will do it eventualy
Jul 12, 2019 at 7:24 history answered Odalrick CC BY-SA 4.0