[jacquesm]

Yes, because that is (1) more likely and (2) much harder to recover from. A slow and gradual collapse of society can be slowly and gradually reversed and is as long as you can't point at something catastrophic going to stretch the definition of collapse unless it is so slow that it is indistinguishable from change.

'slow collapse' is a bit of a contradiction in terms, all collapses that I'm aware of are sudden, they are events on the timescales that we normally care about, even though if you zoomed in on them enough they would show plenty of detail. Once started they will run their course. Gradual deterioration of society isn't something you need to make contingency plans for. It will happen, or it won't but your FORTH based OS isn't going to make a meaningful difference. For the aftermath of an EMP it will be useless and for a deterioration that takes a year, a decade, a century or even longer there will be other, far more effective mitigation strategies.

But fine, if that's the pretext the OP needed to build their thing I'm perfectly OK with it, I just don't think that's in any way a realistic premise. See also: preppers and shelter fanatics.

The people that are best positioned to deal with all of this are the Mennonites.