I have read that survival, whether in a violent confrontation, war, wilderness or business, can have less to do with how many facts you have, or how experienced you are normally, and be more dependent on how quickly you recognise a change in the situation and adapt to it. This is a mind-set thing and can be completely independent of how many times you have been up the mountain, down the river, or through the boonies.
Guess that pretty much ties in with what HoosierJed was saying about self reliance.
If you really want to see where technology is replacing skill, you only have to look at hunting in the US. When we talk about technology in the field of camping its hard to stretch much further than mobile phones, GPS, water filters and ever improved boots, clothes, tents and packs. In the US you can't walk into a Walmart, or pick up a copy of Field and Stream, without seeing examples of massive commercially driven technology being offered as a substitute for skills. Two way radios, laser range finders, scent supressing charcoal impregnated clothing, IR game finders and cameras, sprays to make blood trails glow, pop-up tent hides, MP3 game calls, electrically actuated decoys, pheremone attractor scents, bottled cover scents and little bottles of powder to tell you which way the wind is blowing!
I am sure someone mentioned that it was human nature to seize upon the best kit they could get their hands on. I can't read this thread withough thinking of the Bushcraft episode with Ray in the Amazon with the Yekuana and them having become reliant on matches/lighters. Or Stuart's meeting with the Penan in Borneo, a group that could well have invented the fire piston, but who had lost and forgotten the idea and now used matches and lighters. Or something I read about pygmies in the Congo who for a generation or more had not let the embers of a fire go out and so had forgotten the skills to make fire from scratch.
Technology is an insideous thing hey
I would like to throw a question in of my own. How much is it possible to know?
What I mean is this. The examples of woodsmanship that we like to use as role models, did they do anything else, were they able to lead successful lives in a town/city and still retain their level of knowledge of the wilds? To use myself as an example, I work as an aerospace engineer, I am stuck in an office for much of 5 days each week, I have to retain information about material properties, process cababilities, tollerance interactions, supplier lead times and customer deadlines, and remember how to operate our CAD systems. In my off time I am learning about steel metallurgy and thinking about knife design in addition to several other interests that keep me out of the woods. Whenever I choose, or have, to pay more attention on one of these other interests, or to work, I have less time and capacity to learn bushcraft.
In the modern world, how possible is it to be truely expert in wilderness skills, and not sacrifice your modern life?
How many areas of expertise do you juggle with your bushcraft? Sorry if this is
