system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Foundation] During the early days of the Foundation it is revealed that the four barbarian Kingdoms have lost their atomic technology and reverted back to chemical energy. How does these Kingdoms maintain their star-fleets and interstellar trade?
gpt
A big theme is that things that used to work still work to a certain extent, so a spaceship that was build 500 years ago still can take atomic fuel and function, but if a key component of that ship burns out, nobody is able to fix it. They know how to operate old machines but not exactly how they operate. Knowledge breaks down until everything is insanely specialized. So they could mine uranium with old machines, make atomic fuel from uranium with old machines, and use hyperdrive with old machines, but if any of that breaks, as things do, they couldn't repair anything. It's a very slow degeneration. And power plants for the public use would probably be first to go cuz there's no military benefit and those kingoms were at war and would prioritize military over domestic.