Tom Murphy over at Do The Math[1] argues that we would not be able to reboot modernity after an apocalypse.
The short version of his argument is that we long ago mined/drilled/farmed/harvested the easy resources that can be gotten with pre-industrial technology. The raw materials we are extracting today require modern methods and materials.
We can't bootstrap ourselves from human and animal muscle power back to industrial capacity because it is inadequate to the task.
We might have the theoretical knowledge to do it,
but we'd be unable to build out the infrastructure.
And no, scavenging won't solve it because the energy and technology required to recover the raw materials again requires industrial processes and materials we won't have the ability to harness.
We might have the theoretical knowledge to do it, but we'd be unable to build out the infrastructure.
And no, scavenging won't solve it because the energy and technology required to recover the raw materials again requires industrial processes and materials we won't have the ability to harness.
1 https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/