Same here Paul, when I said brain power, I was being facetious as well.

There really is no way to start a fire without any tools, meaning implements. If you don't have an igniter of some sort, be it a friction tool, a solar intensifier, a sparking tool, or whatever. All you have left then, is pure luck. Maybe the lightning will strike somewhere nearby.

Okay, so back to the original point of the thread. Like I said earlier, all those gadgets makes us think about what might happen, which naturally fosters thoughts about what we'd do in those situations, with or without the gadgets. That one small step puts most everyone here above the mark in being prepared for any survival situation, because by having or thinking about what we might need, we begin planning for and realizing what is possible.

So is all this gadget talk good? Well, maybe we could use a little more discussion about primitive tool making, and timing. If I found myself in the wilderness with nothing but a pocket knife and no hope of immediate rescue, I believe the first order of business would be to make gadgets to survive with. Depending on where I find myself, I will try to make a shelter, a firestarting tool, a water collector, a defensive tool, a compass, a signalling device, etc. What I make for each depends on what's available, my condition, and my knowledge.

I dunno how many times this movie's been mentioned on this forum, but did anyone watch "The Edge" last weekend? A good piece of fiction, with some food for thought.