system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why would a collapse of the electrical system send us back to "the stone age" when, prior to electricity, we had what were essentially modern buildings, fancy clothing, manually operated machinery, cities with millions of inhabitants, and a globally connected society?

Einstein famously said that WWIV would be fought with "sticks and stones," while other noteworthy figures have made similar declarations. It seems like the stone age warning is more than just a metaphor or a euphemism. It receives a lot of emphasis when it's used.
gpt
Because all the stuff we used to have that didn't require electricity is gone.  After one season where nobody can plant enough crops to feed everyone, or get enough water to where people need it, there will be a massive and sudden depopulation. The survivors will be scattered, randomly selected for skills, without access to much knowledge about how to operate a pre-electricity agrarian society, and will be forced to learn it all again, with continuous waves of further depopulation from starvation and disease.  Pretty quickly you end up with a very small population barely hanging on at the edge of the survival margin.