It seems, however, that this theory is not very well supported except for the general impression one might get reading about his behaviour in other situations - Newton doesn't seem to be the humble type.
There was also the backstory for Alpha Centauri. Firaxis' sci-fi Civilization where the landing of the space ship goes anything but smooth.
I'd also strongly recommend the subsequent programme, The Day the Universe Changed, which follows a similar, though temporally arbitrary, connect-the-dots motif.
The two sequels to Connections aren't as good, though C3 is the better of the two.
Also: if you're interested in the background of technology, look up the story of Joseph Needham and his extended exploration, Science and Civilisation in China. Begun in 1954, it remains in process, with 27 volumes. Needham himself died in 1995. Simon Winchester's written an excellent (and much shorter) biography of Needham.
So, if your starting with the correct raw materials and enough food you could probably get to early CPU's in 10 years or so.
I think that example demonstrates the opposite. Getting raw materials is not a problem; it's so easy that people thousands of years ago were shipping raw materials thousands of miles when there was a need for it.
It's knowing the need and having the need which is the hard part... Tons of silicon can be found on your local beach and have been forever. But we only got computers a century ago.
Sure, now we can extract gold from sea water and it's just a question of cost. But, in a collapsed world your much more limited.