What is good time for Earth to begin new evolutionary cycle?

[Ryan_m_b]

+1 to everything Mfb said. It's also worth considering how quickly our infrastructure decays without us to take care of it. Ever seen a house that's been abandoned for a few years? Damp, plants and animals fill it. Windows are broken, walls crack, ceilings sag. Hell take a walk around the countryside and eventually you'll find a farmhouse or barn that hasn't been used for decades, there's nothing left but brick and weeds. Books, electronics and everything else are going to ruin much faster in those conditions, exposed to wind and rain.

Sure there will be bits and pieces left, but to people hundreds of years from now they'll be strange trinkets with no obvious purpose. It would take a dedicated research effort to dig up old artifacts, painstakingly recover information from scraps of surviving books and begin to map out what our life was actually like. To me that implies a society rich enough to support an academic class meaning they've had to spend a fair while building their population and infrastructure base to get back to an early medieval level, at least.

 

[Graw]

+1 to everything Mfb said. It's also worth considering how quickly our infrastructure decays without us to take care of it. Ever seen a house that's been abandoned for a few years? Damp, plants and animals fill it. Windows are broken, walls crack, ceilings sag. Hell take a walk around the countryside and eventually you'll find a farmhouse or barn that hasn't been used for decades, there's nothing left but brick and weeds. Books, electronics and everything else are going to ruin much faster in those conditions, exposed to wind and rain.

Sure there will be bits and pieces left, but to people hundreds of years from now they'll be strange trinkets with no obvious purpose. It would take a dedicated research effort to dig up old artifacts, painstakingly recover information from scraps of surviving books and begin to map out what our life was actually like. To me that implies a society rich enough to support an academic class meaning they've had to spend a fair while building their population and infrastructure base to get back to an early medieval level, at least.

So how long does it take to survivors to become some tribals again? How many generations? Could they worship technology of past like something supernatural without knowing what it used to be?

 

[Ryan_m_b]

So how long does it take to survivors to become some tribals again? How many generations? Could they worship technology of past like something supernatural without knowing what it used to be?

Well if they don't adopt some form of hunter gatherer or primitive (I.e not relying on technology) agriculture they'll die imminently. Learning how to do that is going to be painstaking, few professions teach you how to do things the old fashioned way because it's obsolete for a reason. Learning how to do simple things like manage crops without machines or pesticides, make rope and fabrics, forge simple tools would be painstaking to relearn. For the first few years they could perhaps get away with scavenging things before exposure to the environment ruins most of the left over stuff.

As for worshiping technology...who knows! The majority of it wouldn't work within a short amount of time (for some things days, others decades). Plenty of religions have creation myths featuring a more idealic past so it's certainly possible some sort of religious narrative will form regarding pre-fall culture.

 

[Graw]

Well if they don't adopt some form of hunter gatherer or primitive (I.e not relying on technology) agriculture they'll die imminently. Learning how to do that is going to be painstaking, few professions teach you how to do things the old fashioned way because it's obsolete for a reason. Learning how to do simple things like manage crops without machines or pesticides, make rope and fabrics, forge simple tools would be painstaking to relearn. For the first few years they could perhaps get away with scavenging things before exposure to the environment ruins most of the left over stuff.

As for worshiping technology...who knows! The majority of it wouldn't work within a short amount of time (for some things days, others decades). Plenty of religions have creation myths featuring a more idealic past so it's certainly possible some sort of religious narrative will form regarding pre-fall culture.

Allright that is one part done, for the other part of my question. How would advanced modern human race living on another planet change in 1000 years. Is there any way to make them not to change so much due to some strict rules etc. ? Their technology would get better but their civilization would change only slightly.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Is it beliveable that humans lose their ability to read etc. after breeding of survivors for like 1000 years?

Of course. Can you read 1000 year old English? I have posted some below:

Ðá wæs on úhtan mid aérdæge Grendles gúðcræft gumum undyrne-þá wæs æfter wiste wóp up áhafen micel morgenswég. Maére þéoden æþeling aérgod unblíðe sæt·þolode ðrýðswýð þegnsorge dréah syðþan híe þæs láðan lást scéawedon, wergan gástes·wæs þæt gewin tó strang láð ond longsum.

A rough translation follows:

Spoiler

Monster Grendel's tastes are plainish.
For breakfast? Just a couple Danish.

Or this, a bit more than half as old.

I pray to God so save thy gentil cors,and eek thyne urynals and thy jurdones, thyn ypocras, and eek thy galiones, and every boyste ful of thy letuarie; God blesse hem, and oure lady Seinte Marie! So moot I theen, thou art a propre man, And lyk a prelat, by Seint Ronyan!
Seyde I nat wel? I kan nat speke in terme;but wel I woot thou doost myn herte to erme,that I almoost have caught a cardynacle. By corpus bones! but I have triacle, or elles a draughte of moyste and corny ale, or but I heere anon a myrie tale, Myn herte is lost for pitee of this mayde.
"Thou beel amy, thou Pardoner," he sayde,
"Telle us som myrthe or japes right anon."
"It shal be doon," quod he, "by Seint Ronyon!

 

[Graw]

Of course. Can you read 1000 year old English? I have posted some below:

Ðá wæs on úhtan mid aérdæge Grendles gúðcræft gumum undyrne-þá wæs æfter wiste wóp up áhafen micel morgenswég. Maére þéoden æþeling aérgod unblíðe sæt·þolode ðrýðswýð þegnsorge dréah syðþan híe þæs láðan lást scéawedon, wergan gástes·wæs þæt gewin tó strang láð ond longsum.

A rough translation follows:

Spoiler

Monster Grendel's tastes are plainish.
For breakfast? Just a couple Danish.

Or this, a bit more than half as old.

I pray to God so save thy gentil cors,and eek thyne urynals and thy jurdones, thyn ypocras, and eek thy galiones, and every boyste ful of thy letuarie; God blesse hem, and oure lady Seinte Marie! So moot I theen, thou art a propre man, And lyk a prelat, by Seint Ronyan!
Seyde I nat wel? I kan nat speke in terme;but wel I woot thou doost myn herte to erme,that I almoost have caught a cardynacle. By corpus bones! but I have triacle, or elles a draughte of moyste and corny ale, or but I heere anon a myrie tale, Myn herte is lost for pitee of this mayde.
"Thou beel amy, thou Pardoner," he sayde,
"Telle us som myrthe or japes right anon."
"It shal be doon," quod he, "by Seint Ronyon!

It's not like I am native speaker but I understand some of this. Guess that answers my question about language change.

 

[Czcibor]

Vanadium:

You should add a disclaimer - English changed terribly during 500 years, but it did not happen so much for ex. Polish. Langauge sounds funny for me (which is improper for this sad poem from 1580 by Jan Kochanowski), however I fully get it:

Wielkieś mi uczyniła pustki w domu moim,
Moja droga Orszulo, tym zniknienim swoim.
Pełno nas, a jakoby nikogo nie było:
Jedną maluczką duszą tak wiele ubyło.
Tyś za wszytki mówiła, za wszytki śpiewała,
Wszytkiś w domu kąciki zawżdy pobiegała. ("zawżdy" - first word, that I had to think about the meaning)
Nie dopuściłaś nigdy matce sie frasować ("frasować" - archaic for worried, but known for me)
Ani ojcu myśleniem zbytnim głowy psować, ("psować" - core of word related to break, without the context I would not get it)
To tego, to owego wdzięcznie obłapiając ("obłapiać" - core of word related to "hand", without the context I would not be sure)
I onym swym uciesznym śmiechem zabawiając.
Teraz wszytko umilkło, szczere pustki w domu,
Nie masz zabawki, nie masz rośmiać sie nikomu. ("zabawki" - in modern language means "toys", here it must have meant "play" or "joy")
Z każdego kąta żałość człowieka ujmuje,
A serce swej pociechy darmo upatruje.

A bit older texts were more challenging, but one of the problems was different transcription, which was regular enough and after a while of trying to read it my brain started to readjust.

 

[Vanadium 50]

A modern English speaker will find my first passage (from c. 1000) incomprehensible, my second passage (from c. 1400) partially comprehensible, and a passage from Shakespeare - more or less a contemporary of Kochanowski - completely understandable, although certainly not something that would be normally spoken.

But your point that things vary across cultures is a good one. Chinese from 1000 years ago is readable today. Vietnamese from 200 years ago is not - because the Vietnamese changed their writing system c. 1900.

 

[Czcibor]

A modern English speaker will find my first passage (from c. 1000) incomprehensible, my second passage (from c. 1400) partially comprehensible, and a passage from Shakespeare - more or less a contemporary of Kochanowski - completely understandable, although certainly not something that would be normally spoken.

But your point that things vary across cultures is a good one. Chinese from 1000 years ago is readable today. Vietnamese from 200 years ago is not - because the Vietnamese changed their writing system c. 1900.

I've heard such discussion in my country concerning understanding Shakespeare by native speaker vs. understanding Kochanowski by native speaker, and the conclusion was that Polish kids have it easier ;)

Concerning spelling reforms, that may be also even more complicated. I've seen XIXth century text in Polish written in cyrylic. I know basic Russian, so for me it was very weird for a minute, but it was becoming understandable very quickly.

Maybe not even matter of culture as such, but:
-mixing up language can lead to big complications (like Norman invasion in Britain);
-having developed script should help to stabilize language;
-having big society stabilizes the language.

Anyway there is also possibility of just learning ancient languages like Latin or Greek. Worked well in medieval, no reason to exclude such possibility

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Allright that is one part done, for the other part of my question. How would advanced modern human race living on another planet change in 1000 years. Is there any way to make them not to change so much due to some strict rules etc. ? Their technology would get better but their civilization would change only slightly.

So the essential part of your question is "what circumstances would freeze a culture for 1,000 years?" That's a hard one, I don't know if there are many examples in history of cultures that have remained static for 1,000 years. It's even more unlikely when you add better technology. Hmmm...

 

[gmax137]

... Could they worship technology of past like something supernatural without knowing what it used to be?

Of course. Can you read 1000 year old English? I have posted some below:

Ðá wæs on úhtan mid aérdæge Grendles gúðcræft gumum undyrne-þá wæs æfter wiste wóp up áhafen micel morgenswég. Maére þéoden æþeling aérgod unblíðe sæt·þolode ðrýðswýð þegnsorge dréah syðþan híe þæs láðan lást scéawedon, wergan gástes·wæs þæt gewin tó strang láð ond longsum.

reminds me of the worship words, e plebnista!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708474/synopsis

 

[Czcibor]

So the essential part of your question is "what circumstances would freeze a culture for 1,000 years?" That's a hard one, I don't know if there are many examples in history of cultures that have remained static for 1,000 years. It's even more unlikely when you add better technology. Hmmm...

I assume that just literally freezing those people don't count? ;)

Make them watch old movies? Make a culture build around nostalgia for good old days? Make a legal system that's hard to change? (maybe... but not for 1000 years)

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I assume that just literally freezing those people don't count? ;)

Ask the OP :p

Make them watch old movies? Make a culture build around nostalgia for good old days? Make a legal system that's hard to change? (maybe... but not for 1000 years)

A legal system that favours the same old is interesting. I wonder if copyright laws could be designed along those lines. For example: grant extremely long IP rights (patents, copyright, trademarks etc) that maintain monopolies over very long periods. Also extend what IP can count towards including more vague designs (e.g. "I own the copyright to making a film involving cowboys"). Next scrap fair use and other exemptions. What you might end up with is a world where it is much harder/riskier to create new things for fear of being sued by others.

Don't know how believable that is for 1000 years though. Presumably people would get annoyed enough to vote to change. Which brings in the political side of things: democracies naturally allow for change over time and autocracies tend to have less frequent but more explosive revolutions.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

There have been governments in the past specifically designed to curb as much change as possible. The Spartans, for example, had two kings.

There are some options for an end of the world scenario that leaves resources relatively intact. A plague for instance.

Resource does not necessarily mean food / water. People themselves are resources, knowledge... Without our current knowledge and technology, raw resources may still be there, but way less accessible.

 

[tom aaron]

Vanadium:

You should add a disclaimer - English changed terribly during 500 years, but it did not happen so much for ex. Polish. Langauge sounds funny for me (which is improper for this sad poem from 1580 by Jan Kochanowski), however I fully get it:

Wielkieś mi uczyniła pustki w domu moim,
Moja droga Orszulo, tym zniknienim swoim.
Pełno nas, a jakoby nikogo nie było:
Jedną maluczką duszą tak wiele ubyło.
Tyś za wszytki mówiła, za wszytki śpiewała,
Wszytkiś w domu kąciki zawżdy pobiegała. ("zawżdy" - first word, that I had to think about the meaning)
Nie dopuściłaś nigdy matce sie frasować ("frasować" - archaic for worried, but known for me)
Ani ojcu myśleniem zbytnim głowy psować, ("psować" - core of word related to break, without the context I would not get it)
To tego, to owego wdzięcznie obłapiając ("obłapiać" - core of word related to "hand", without the context I would not be sure)
I onym swym uciesznym śmiechem zabawiając.
Teraz wszytko umilkło, szczere pustki w domu,
Nie masz zabawki, nie masz rośmiać sie nikomu. ("zabawki" - in modern language means "toys", here it must have meant "play" or "joy")
Z każdego kąta żałość człowieka ujmuje,
A serce swej pociechy darmo upatruje.

A bit older texts were more challenging, but one of the problems was different transcription, which was regular enough and after a while of trying to read it my brain started to readjust.

Same here. My first language is French. I can read 500 year old French no problem...at least 90% of it. I suppose what matters most is Mandarin, Hindi...they are even less changed.

Humans in the future would be like us. They have brains. They are not suddenly primitive cavemen. If there was some cataclysm I would still teach my grandchildren how to read, basic math and the properties of the lever, how to generate electricity, etc. I would think that most parents would also teach their children how to read and the times table...would you?

 

[Vanadium 50]

I would think that most parents would also teach their children how to read and the times table...would you?

Yes, as did my parents and their parents before them. Even with all that and the benefits of modern civilization, I still can't read Beowulf in the original.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Humans in the future would be like us. They have brains. They are not suddenly primitive cavemen. If there was some cataclysm I would still teach my grandchildren how to read, basic math and the properties of the lever, how to generate electricity, etc. I would think that most parents would also teach their children how to read and the times table...would you?

Basic skills like tool using would be useful but passing on knowledge that can't be used throughout the generations isn't likely to go very far. If you live in a world where you can't build electrical tools then what use is knowing the theory? Worse still if you have no examples to work with then those passing on the information are bound to get it wrong. It's easy to see how a group, several generations removed from the event, would disregard the ravings of one of the elders about things they've never experienced, even if that elder keeps saying "well my grandad said that his grandad used this knowledge back when the world was full of flying machines!". Again we're into myth territory.

Remember key to hunter gatherer societies, and early agricultural ones, is that almost everyone has to pull their weight in keeping the group alive. Whether they be those that hunt for food, prepare the food, maintain the tools etcetera. In many situations they may not be able to afford to support an academic class of people who spend their time doing nothing but studying the relics of the past with the vague hope that in generations to come people might be able to use the knowledge.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Same here. My first language is French. I can read 500 year old French no problem...at least 90% of it. I suppose what matters most is Mandarin, Hindi...they are even less changed.

I think the amount a language changes has to do with how stable the society is. A stable society with a strong ruler and easy procession would not cause a lot of changes to the language. A volatile society where rulers are constantly being replaced and you have lots of groups basically fending for themselves would probably evolve very quickly.

You used French as an example, know where french came from? For 500 years, Latin didn't change a whole lot, then society collapsed and nothing replaced it, and it only took 200/300 years for Latin to turn into early French.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I think the amount a language changes has to do with how stable the society is. A stable society with a strong ruler and easy procession would not cause a lot of changes to the language. A volatile society where rulers are constantly being replaced and you have lots of groups basically fending for themselves would probably evolve very quickly.

Reasonable theory, I'd imagine there's an element of isolation too. Cultures that don't mix much will diverge in language over time. Question is in our post-plague scenario where there's only a few million humans scattered around the planet: is this the sort of environment in which language will be stable over centuries?

 

[newjerseyrunner]

Same here. My first language is French. I can read 500 year old French no problem...at least 90% of it. I suppose what matters most is Mandarin, Hindi...they are even less changed.

Humans in the future would be like us. They have brains. They are not suddenly primitive cavemen. If there was some cataclysm I would still teach my grandchildren how to read, basic math and the properties of the lever, how to generate electricity, etc. I would think that most parents would also teach their children how to read and the times table...would you?

You may teach it, but without some use for it, I find it unlikely that they would retain it, and even more unlikely that they'd pass that down to their own. Remember that "primitive cavemen" had the same brains that we did, they were just more interested in survival.

Remember, if you're on this forum, you're probably in the intellectual elite, think of the average human. Do you think Joe Six Pack drinking Budweiser and watching Nascar would teach their children about physical laws? We CURRENTLY have schools that teach creationism.

You also have to think about oppression. If society completely collapsed right now, huge numbers of people will cling to their religion because it's the only thing that promises an explanation of what's happening that they can understand. You will probably end up with oppressive christian regimes like in the dark ages. Science and knowledge may be the scapegoat to explain why the collapse happened, ever read the bible? The very first story in it is how man is forbidden from eating from the tree of knowledge. The society of Iraq collapsed, who's the first group making a power grab? ISIS.

No one expects the spanish inquisition.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

You may teach it, but without some use for it, I find it unlikely that they would retain it, and even more unlikely that they'd pass that down to their own. Remember that "primitive cavemen" had the same brains that we did, they were just more interested in survival.

Remember, if you're on this forum, you're probably in the intellectual elite, think of the average human. Do you think Joe Six Pack drinking Budweiser and watching Nascar would teach their children about physical laws? We CURRENTLY have schools that teach creationism.

I was going to give you a like for the first point but held off because of the second and your characterisation of the average person. Intellectual elites are no more likely to have useful skills than anyone else, with a few notable exceptions like mechanical engineers or doctors. Most of us have dedicated our lives to fields that will be utterly useless to survival in a hunter/gatherer society, worse than that some of us will have skills that could be useful if it wasn't for the fact they relied on technological infrastructure that doesn't exist. What I mean by that is if you think of skills that would be useful, like metal work, and then look at those professions today you'll see that a lot of the training focuses on how to use advanced tools to get the job done. If you don't have access to that you're not going to be doing much.

Like I said agreed on the first point though. Knowledge that isn't useful and takes a lot of work to understand is very unlikely to stick around in a back-to-basics survival world.

 

[Graw]

I assume that just literally freezing those people don't count? ;)

Make them watch old movies? Make a culture build around nostalgia for good old days? Make a legal system that's hard to change? (maybe... but not for 1000 years)

Ask the OP :p
A legal system that favours the same old is interesting. I wonder if copyright laws could be designed along those lines. For example: grant extremely long IP rights (patents, copyright, trademarks etc) that maintain monopolies over very long periods. Also extend what IP can count towards including more vague designs (e.g. "I own the copyright to making a film involving cowboys"). Next scrap fair use and other exemptions. What you might end up with is a world where it is much harder/riskier to create new things for fear of being sued by others.

Don't know how believable that is for 1000 years though. Presumably people would get annoyed enough to vote to change. Which brings in the political side of things: democracies naturally allow for change over time and autocracies tend to have less frequent but more explosive revolutions.

I want a story where humans and other mammals are dying, some of humans escape on another planet where they already have colony. In 1000 years those "colonists" meet survivors of Earth who are living in tribes and lost ability to control technology etc. so they are primitive. Problem is I need to make those colonist to improve only slightly in 1000 years. Guess having them in cryo-stasis while they terramorph new planet sounds too vague.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

I want a story where humans and other mammals are dying, some of humans escape on another planet where they already have colony. In 1000 years those "colonists" meet survivors of Earth who are living in tribes and lost ability to control technology etc. so they are primitive. Problem is I need to make those colonist to improve only slightly in 1000 years. Guess having them in cryo-stasis while they terramorph new planet sounds too vague.

Humans and mammals die off? That's a tough one, why do you want that exactly? A plague that could infect hundreds of species of mammal and drive them to extinction is pretty much impossible. I'm struggling to think of anything that would kill all mammals off without also killing virtually everything else.

In terms of the colony: I'm assuming you've got some form of FTL in this setting? Perhaps you could suggest that the colony wasn't fully set up, it had only been going for a few decades and was still reliant on Earth shipping it materials, technology and workers. When the plague hit Earth and civilisation collapsed the colony struggled to survive, the first few centuries of their time could be spent just barely holding on. Perhaps suggest that there were a few times in which new/experimental techniques for survival were attempted and they failed spectacularly, fostering a long running sense of technological conservatism.

It's fiction after all so you're aiming for something believable and internally consistent, not necessarily completely accurate.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

I want a story where humans and other mammals are dying, some of humans escape on another planet where they already have colony. In 1000 years those "colonists" meet survivors of Earth who are living in tribes and lost ability to control technology etc. so they are primitive. Problem is I need to make those colonist to improve only slightly in 1000 years. Guess having them in cryo-stasis while they terramorph new planet sounds too vague.

If you automate your colony to such an extreme that life is mostly recreational, I would see little reason to ever really change it. The colonists may get so complacent and reliant on their technology that they no longer have the desire to create more. There was a Star Trek episode with such a planet: http://en.memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/When_The_Bough_Breaks_(episode)

Perhaps you can have a failure in some necessary technology that they don't know how to fix be the catalyst to why the colonists return to Earth.

 

[tom aaron]

I think the amount a language changes has to do with how stable the society is. A stable society with a strong ruler and easy procession would not cause a lot of changes to the language. A volatile society where rulers are constantly being replaced and you have lots of groups basically fending for themselves would probably evolve very quickly.

You used French as an example, know where french came from? For 500 years, Latin didn't change a whole lot, then society collapsed and nothing replaced it, and it only took 200/300 years for Latin to turn into early French.

True. There is also no single society. At any time there are dozens of societies with dozens of potential outcomes. This was even more the case a thousand years ago. It doesn't take 'all' societies to advance...just one of dozens. Once technology gives advantage it mushrooms...thus why Eskimos and Hawaiians are speaking on their cell phones as we discuss this.

 

[Czcibor]

I want a story where humans and other mammals are dying, some of humans escape on another planet where they already have colony. In 1000 years those "colonists" meet survivors of Earth who are living in tribes and lost ability to control technology etc. so they are primitive. Problem is I need to make those colonist to improve only slightly in 1000 years. Guess having them in cryo-stasis while they terramorph new planet sounds too vague.

In 1000 years plenty can happen...

yeah, truism...

Ideas:
1) Time - does your way of travel is time consuming? Like it takes centuries or so? Or maybe some FTL drive went awry...?

2) Low population - not many scientists
In my post apocaliptic setting I use actually quite harsh policies that are intended to breed population and train enough potential scientists. Tech still develops slowly (very limited number of new inventions, but quite a few tinkerings), however culture becomes somewhat crazy. In your setting your population may just value individual freedom, low ecological footprint, not specially scientifically minded culture (pending on your bent "creationism" or "feminist science studies" :D ). Maybe they even proudly declare that their civilization reached a plateau. Modern society has usually fertility rate below 2.1, so the population may even decline...

3) To be more realistic - you shuld even put quite a few phases in such tech civilization. Some phases of growth and decay. Political instability, war... crazy ideologies... overcomming that... Actually the values may have shifted a few dozens of time. They were busy, just were not funding R&D.

 

[Czcibor]

You may teach it, but without some use for it, I find it unlikely that they would retain it, and even more unlikely that they'd pass that down to their own. Remember that "primitive cavemen" had the same brains that we did, they were just more interested in survival.

But ability to write a note on a piece of bark or doing basic calculation is worth time needed. I would consider preservation of such abilities as likely.

You also have to think about oppression. If society completely collapsed right now, huge numbers of people will cling to their religion because it's the only thing that promises an explanation of what's happening that they can understand. You will probably end up with oppressive christian regimes like in the dark ages. Science and knowledge may be the scapegoat to explain why the collapse happened, ever read the bible? The very first story in it is how man is forbidden from eating from the tree of knowledge. The society of Iraq collapsed, who's the first group making a power grab? ISIS.

No one expects the spanish inquisition.

In good scenario you may have a mixture of science and cargo cult as the religion :D

 

[Ryan_m_b]

But ability to write a note on a piece of bark or doing basic calculation is worth time needed. I would consider preservation of such abilities as likely.

There's a huge difference between a note or a simple sum and retaining advanced mathematical/engineering knowledge.

 

[Graw]

Humans and mammals die off? That's a tough one, why do you want that exactly? A plague that could infect hundreds of species of mammal and drive them to extinction is pretty much impossible. I'm struggling to think of anything that would kill all mammals off without also killing virtually everything else.

In terms of the colony: I'm assuming you've got some form of FTL in this setting? Perhaps you could suggest that the colony wasn't fully set up, it had only been going for a few decades and was still reliant on Earth shipping it materials, technology and workers. When the plague hit Earth and civilisation collapsed the colony struggled to survive, the first few centuries of their time could be spent just barely holding on. Perhaps suggest that there were a few times in which new/experimental techniques for survival were attempted and they failed spectacularly, fostering a long running sense of technological conservatism.

It's fiction after all so you're aiming for something believable and internally consistent, not necessarily completely accurate.

In 1000 years plenty can happen...

yeah, truism...

Ideas:
1) Time - does your way of travel is time consuming? Like it takes centuries or so? Or maybe some FTL drive went awry...?

2) Low population - not many scientists
In my post apocaliptic setting I use actually quite harsh policies that are intended to breed population and train enough potential scientists. Tech still develops slowly (very limited number of new inventions, but quite a few tinkerings), however culture becomes somewhat crazy. In your setting your population may just value individual freedom, low ecological footprint, not specially scientifically minded culture (pending on your bent "creationism" or "feminist science studies" :D ). Maybe they even proudly declare that their civilization reached a plateau. Modern society has usually fertility rate below 2.1, so the population may even decline...

3) To be more realistic - you shuld even put quite a few phases in such tech civilization. Some phases of growth and decay. Political instability, war... crazy ideologies... overcomming that... Actually the values may have shifted a few dozens of time. They were busy, just were not funding R&D.

Humans and mammals die off? That's a tough one, why do you want that exactly? A plague that could infect hundreds of species of mammal and drive them to extinction is pretty much impossible. I'm struggling to think of anything that would kill all mammals off without also killing virtually everything else.

In terms of the colony: I'm assuming you've got some form of FTL in this setting? Perhaps you could suggest that the colony wasn't fully set up, it had only been going for a few decades and was still reliant on Earth shipping it materials, technology and workers. When the plague hit Earth and civilisation collapsed the colony struggled to survive, the first few centuries of their time could be spent just barely holding on. Perhaps suggest that there were a few times in which new/experimental techniques for survival were attempted and they failed spectacularly, fostering a long running sense of technological conservatism.

It's fiction after all so you're aiming for something believable and internally consistent, not necessarily completely accurate.

Well I can change it, it is my story after all. Not all mammals. Just some kind of plague that spread very quickly. Killed most of mankind. Elite escaped to colony to build new empire. People that were not lucky enough to leave Earth went into shelters. After 50-80 years they leave shelters to explore Earth, they start to live on surface again but in 1000 years of breeding and focusing on survival resulting in primitive tribals again. Meanwhile people on other planet are living under strict rules so they don't change that much in 1000 years. There are some civil wars but rulers of Empire remain same due to their absolute dominion.

 

[newjerseyrunner]

I would not expect humans to revert to tribes, I would expect us to revert to something like a feudal system. If humans disappeared, all of our technology and buildings would likely still be there, so we wouldn't be starting over again from scratch. Some people will fight over the best locations, others would peacefully gather, but we'd end up in places where buildings already exist: we put those buildings there for a reason (usually because the city is on a river.)