Are you asking this question in reference to last night's Battlestar Galactica finale? It was somewhat surprising to see everyone give up technology so easily and start anew with just clothing, some food, and their own language. But I guess being cooped up in those ships for that long and seeing how the abuse of technology led them to such events could have that effect.
To answer your question, it's hard to guess. Without medical or agricultural technology, I think most of our current population would die out. The rest would war over the remnants of societal structure. Technical progress, as we see it, would take a long time to begin -- primarily dependent on stability. There are too many unpredictable events that would alter the length of time before returning to stability and our current standards.
I have not seen that episode. Thank you very much for telling me how it ends. I guess that will teach me the dangers of not seeing everything the second it airs. A couple of comments like that, and I can throw away my PVR completely, and save a lot of money.
To keep on topic, I think that many would die due to lack of food and medical technology, but it wouldn't take long to reach the technology level of 1900. The difference between then and now, is that we know it is possible. How much time was wasted because people didn't think something was possible?
The BSG folks were dumb. Everything in nature is trying to kill you all the time. You can use a wrench to hit things long after there are no more nuts to be tightened. Apollo will run out of bullets and the natives will spear him, or the lions will eat him.
To answer your question, it's hard to guess. Without medical or agricultural technology, I think most of our current population would die out. The rest would war over the remnants of societal structure. Technical progress, as we see it, would take a long time to begin -- primarily dependent on stability. There are too many unpredictable events that would alter the length of time before returning to stability and our current standards.