Unless the cataclysm was a side effect of the consumption of the easily-accessible fossil fuels. If humanity had to restart its technological progression today with most easily-accessible fossil fuels already used up, it might find it much more difficult to progress past about where we were in the nineteenth century. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;aeon.co&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;technology&#x2F;could-we-reboot-civilisation-without-fossil-fuels&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;aeon.co&#x2F;magazine&#x2F;technology&#x2F;could-we-reboot-civilisat...</a>