From the fiction side, Walter Miller's 1959 _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ [1] was written from the perspective of Benedictine Monks preserving knowledge - without truly understanding it - post apocalypse.
In _Earth Abides_[2] by George R. Stewart, the protagonist eventually gives up on his attempt to provide for the future, eventually deciding that the best he can do for his clan is to teach them to fend for themselves instead of foraging in the rubble.
That conclusion always reminded me of one of the conclusions of the WIPP report[3]: we may not be able to communicate with the future, so hopefully if nothing else, they'll learn to avoid the contaminated area through attrition....
In my sixty years on this planet, Earth Abides remains the most devastating, encouraging, and thought-provoking fictional work I have ever read. Though written in the 40's, its conclusions are no less valid today: humanity and its technology-based society are not one and the same.
In _Earth Abides_[2] by George R. Stewart, the protagonist eventually gives up on his attempt to provide for the future, eventually deciding that the best he can do for his clan is to teach them to fend for themselves instead of foraging in the rubble.
That conclusion always reminded me of one of the conclusions of the WIPP report[3]: we may not be able to communicate with the future, so hopefully if nothing else, they'll learn to avoid the contaminated area through attrition....
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warnin...
[3, (big pdf!)]: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1279277/m2/...