[palmotea]

> But regardless of that, the ability to program microcontrollers is still a superpower and if you can have it, you have a hell of an edge.

I really disagree with that. It will give practically no edge. It's a specialist skill that's only really useful in the context of an already computerized society for mass production or big one-offs.

If you have a collapse, I think the assumption is there would little to no mass production of advanced goods (hence, the scavenging concept). Then you're left with big one-offs, which are things large organizations like governments build and not all the time.

[hereonout2]

I dunno, microcontrollers could help in this zombie apocalypse world we're imagining.

I would think even in small scale having things like a 3d printers, CNC machines, networked video surveillance and alarm systems, solar arrays etc would be very beneficial.

Absolutely though the top priorities would be much simpler things though like food, clean water and shelter.

[hakfoo]

Process control seems like the big one. Precise tools for precise measurements and monitoring are pretty high up the tech tree, so if you can say "we saved a box of Arduinos and sensors from the Before Times", you can get those capabilities back sooner, and potentially use them as references for tools built with more renewable resources.