Then again, how many fuckers are there out there that can nigger-rig a welder from scratch?

The key is not what’ll stop working or when, but how much we’ll have left per person, if shit does collapse. Because you can do a lot with the scrap leftover.

Everything I know about mechanics and electronics is self-taught: I can swap an engine, read an electrical diagram, and turn a write-off into a driveable vehicle again, but when it comes to fabrication I know next to nothing. I researched a number of things to depict them as accurately as possible, but there’s only so much time in the day, and materials science wasn’t one of them.

A great deal of it, however, is the case of “reality is unrealistic.” First off, I didn’t want to write about Future Weapons – no infrared guns, no remote-controlled drones, nothing that takes away from the beauty and simplicity of a simple rifle battle (a beauty and simplicity that has never *actually* existed, quite frankly). Second of all, the reality of trying to rebuild a vehicle – even one that’s been in relatively good conditions the whole time – is going to be damned near impossible. As you said, there’s a whole chain of technology which needs to be maintained.

Actually, that’s a major premise of the book; it’s a nerfed premise (it’s more fun with motorcycles and AR-15s), but the overall degeneration of technology is major concern.

Also, I retarded the technology in the vehicles by about forty years; anything being produced nowadays would be utterly useless when the CPUs eroded.