>Not archaic - rather - a well rounded generalist - which would be positive for survival - in the event the world reverts to a mad-max scenario!
>
I think the fact that I can bricklay, plaster, make with wood, concrete, etc. etc. would be more useful.
>I think I read too much Larry Niven (Ring World, Integral Trees, The Postman {Kevin Costner made a movie of that one}! Maybe postman was not LN, but rather a book written by david brin - who wrote a story (star tide rising?) where dolphins and chimps fly spaceships. One of the dolphins (in the story) is always hitting on female humans! Uses his sonar in ways I would never imagine it could be used!:-)

Drat, there goes my idea for a SF novel, where dolphins come on land, in water-filled "supermarines" on legs, to support their body-weight, hunting for rabbits, but catch humans in their drift nets, who are dragged into the sea and drowned.

You wanna read Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Not post-apocalyptic but involves other parallel universes, one for instance where people's souls (or daemons) are external, in the form of whatever animal the daemon wishes. One universe has tripedal animals, the more intelligent of which use wheels.

I often wish we had prehensile tails. Just think of the fun you couild have with them: as a shooting stick at games, to fend one off the wall when staggering drunk, to hold an extra weapon in combat, during sex ... The possibilities are endless! :-)