[gherkinnn]

I can’t build a fire in the rain, nor can I skin and prepare an animal. But I can buy a slab of beef and chuck it in a pan.

If we’d all be stuck with the very basics, we’d be nowhere. This is why abstraction and specialisation are important.

[scaryclam]

Thing is, if you needed to make a fire in the rain and skin & prep and animal, you'd have a good chance of at least getting most of the way there as you understand the concepts. The problem here is more equivalent to not even knowing what and animal or fire is, nevermind how to do the tasks at hand.

[gherkinnn]

I would starve. As would most. And if I manage to scavenge some food, I’d die of some triviality within a month because I don’t have medical training.

We’re completely and utterly screwed without antibiotics and electricity and farmers.

And I’m convinced that at every step of our species’ advancement through abstraction and specialisation somebody warned of impending doom.

I don’t see how the same won’t apply to software.