
A new book compiles knowledge necessary for society to recover after disaster - ColinWright
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rebooting-civilization-survivorse28099-how-to-guide-for-restoring-technology-after-the-apocalypse-excerpt/
======
kqr2
A good sci-fi book on this topic is the _Earth Abides_ :

[http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abides-George-R-
Stewart/dp/03454...](http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abides-George-R-
Stewart/dp/0345487133/)

From one of the reviews:

One thing that disturbs people about Earth Abides is its incredible humbling
realism about the human condition. People who read it come away profoundly
unnerved by the idea that civilization is not something guaranteed to come
into existence if we lose it and that it requires an enormous convergence of
many different kinds of stimulus to create the energies needed within a race
of men to bring it into being. Even the most gifted races of people on the
Earth can barely hold it together in the best of times, George Stewart shows
us how easily it can all fall apart and remain in a primeval condition for
untold generations.

[http://www.amazon.com/review/R3L6EVT6CXOAFM/ref=cm_cr_dp_tit...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R3L6EVT6CXOAFM/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0345487133&nodeID=283155&store=books)

~~~
cpeterso
There's a good possibility that, even with all our current knowledge, we could
not reboot civilization because we've tapped much of the Earth's easily-
accessible oil.

------
hooande
Wikipedia. Put onto a device with a nonmechanical hard drive using technology
that will last for at least 1,000 years. Said device would have to be powered
with kinetic energy so that someone could press a pump with their hand or foot
to give it power. I would imagine that the hardware could be made less complex
and more durable by stripping it down to perform only the purpose of
displaying text on a screen. We should develop and perfect this technology and
scatter it around the world.

I can't think of anything that's more useful than all of the world's knowledge
in a small box. The science, research and technology articles alone could turn
men into gods of their time, imparting the knowledge necessary to wage war or
enthrall most people. Can you imagine if modern wikipedia were dropped off
anywhere in the world 1,000 years ago? The world would be completely
different. Plus we'd be able to transmit so much of global culture, in
different languages no less. If society was completely reset they would still
have a knowledge of breaking bad and mash, plus all of the classics of today.
Preserving wikipedia for centuries has to be one of the most beneficial things
we can do for future societies, no matter what happens.

Specifically about this book, I heard a radio interview where the author said
that the technology he felt was most important is the lathe. It's like the
ycombinator of tools, you can use a partially completed lathe to make another
lathe. He mentioned a story about a machinist who was able to start with one
lathe and raw materials, and end up with an entire shop full of different
tools. I almost went out and bought a cheap lathe, just the zombie apocalypse
starts anytime soon.

~~~
srl
Have you ever tried learning math, or physics, from wikipedia? It's nearly
impossible. I agree that preserving some sort of encyclopedic form of
knowledge is a great idea, and that wikipedia is the best we have at the
moment, but in the event of apocalypse, it would be pretty much useless.

Imagine for instance that you don't know what electricity is. Now read
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity).
There is no useful information there. Looking around now, I can't figure out
any way I could come to any sort of reasonable understanding. This is a
familiar feeling for me - it's the same feeling I get whenever I look up some
new (to me) mathematical concept on wikipedia.

Wikipedia is not meant for teaching. Now, a wikipedia of textbooks
(wikiversity?) would be extraordinarily helpful in an apocalypse, as well as
every-day life.

~~~
outworlder
Not useless, however.

Give the contents of wikipedia to our own civilization a century ago and watch
the outstanding progress. A lot of theories wouldn't need to be tested, once
the accuracy of wikipedia was determined. Things like penicilin wouldn't have
to be discovered by accident. Several chemical reactions, which are named
after their inventors, wouldn't need discovering.

Several open questions would be answered in an instant. Heck, give wikipedia
to us a decade ago, we hadn't even discovered exoplanets. That would tell us
that they are out there, and the outlines of basic techniques to find them.

Even things like the best reentry shape for a spaceship. Or chemical elements
previously undiscovered.

WRT that particular entry, it is in fact, very abstract. But give it to a
university, no matter the tech level, they will figure it out, given time.
There's a lot of missing information indeed, but people are very good at
filling in the blanks.

I'll give you another example:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser) . It
is cryptic too, but remember that the laser, once conceived theoretically,
didn't have a practical use. Now, we can't live without them. That entry lists
the practical uses right there.

There are many, many more examples. My argument is that, while you cannot give
wikipedia to someone and expect that a civilization will come out on the other
end, the knowledge that is there is priceless. That would require work, but I
bet any reasonable government would provide the necessary financing.

Oh, almost forgot, weaponry. It has several outlines for weapons. Heck, even
the type of antenna best used for radar would be enough information to
completely change the events of the World Wars.

Another thing I just remembered:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter)
. Helicopters were attempted for decades with no success, it says right there
in the history section. But someone came up with the idea of flexible rotors.
There, my last phrase is enough to point a team to the solution, even if the
details about materials, manufacturing methods and the calculations are
missing. But I bet people can figure it out.

~~~
josephkern
> A lot of theories wouldn't need to be tested.

It sounds like you are saying Science would have put faith into the accuracy
of a single book. The methods of discovery are as important as the discovery
itself.

~~~
robryan
I think it is more accurate to say that for each concept, there would be a
great starting point for which they could then confirm.

------
erikpukinskis
Apocalypse preparation really grinds my gears. It demonstrates a fundamental
ignorance of the relationship between politics and ecology. Many people
_currently_ live in an apocalyptic environment. Destitute people in the
richest cities in the world live without access to basic sanitation, let alone
photography or "digital storage". Governments are a form of organized violence
which the capital class use to protect their access to ecological and
infrastructural resources, thereby denying those resources to the poor.

In the event of some kind of massive ecological disaster, violence and power
will not suddenly cease to exist. The capital class will shrink and the
remaining rich will double down on their use of violence to control resources.
For them (us?) their standard of living will remain high. Electronics
factories and power plants will continue to run, they will just be more
heavily protected by militaries.

It _will_ get harder for the rich to tune out the plight of the poor. But we
already have many tools that shield us from having to see the violent side
effects of our lifestyle, and those tools will just have to be used more
thoroughly so we can ignore what will be much more widespread poverty and keep
running the machine of civilization.

But this is the thing: that world only differs from our current world only in
proportions and numbers. Everything that will happen in the "apocalypse" is
already happening now, all the time. If you care about what happens in the
apocalypse you should also care about what's happening right now.

You can "prep" to try to ensure that you stay in the capital class when the
apocalypse goes down, but I just think it would be a better use of your
resources to fix what wrong with the system now, and move away from this kind
of zero-sum political system so that _everyone_ can be OK both in the current
resource crunch and in the theoretical future crunches.

We have an opportunity to solve the resource distribution problems that have
plagued civilization from the start. Let's take that opportunity, rather than
spend our effort trying to make sure we "win" and someone else "loses" if
things get worse.

~~~
edanm
"Governments are a form of organized violence which the capital class use to
protect their access to ecological and infrastructural resources, thereby
denying those resources to the poor."

Why do you think that?

You seem to have a worldview that is not accepted by the majority of, say,
economists, who have spent the last 200 years studying these issues.

So I'd love to here what makes you think your view is correct?

~~~
zo1
No, economists have been _arguing_ and _studying_ for over 200 years, probably
more. Simply saying they've been "studying it" for 200 years doesn't make
_your_ view or your choice of economists correct.

Let's have a look at the parent poster's points that you're curious about:

1\. _" Governments are a form of organized violence"_ This is correct in quite
a few different interpretations, even according to some politicians like
Obama. Not only that, but have you looked at the statistics regarding how many
individuals have been killed by government action? Wars? Execution? Atomic
Bombs? Some people, including me, will go so far as to define the
government/state as an "organization with a monopoly on force/violence within
a geographic area".

2\. " _[..]capital class use to protect their access to ecological and
infrastructural resources_ " Not quite sure about this one, really. But the
government/state does indeed limit usage/access to resources in the
environment, for one reason or another. But it also chooses to give/deny
access to certain infrastructure. Ever heard of a poor person going to a
public school in a rich neighborhood? Bet you've heard about the
perks/protection that civil servants, politicians and union members get from
the government.

3\. " _[..]thereby denying those resources to the poor._ " Government does
indeed give quite a few things to the poor. It also incentivizes them not to
use the resources available to them in the natural environment. Perhaps that's
what the parent poster was talking about. It's no longer feasible for a poor
guy to strike it rich by going out into the wilderness and discovering oil.
Not just because the easy wells have been found already, but because the
government won't grant them permits/resource rights.

Also, here is some extra reading. First some logical fallacies you seem to be
using. And another link regarding the ethics of anarcho-capitalism. Also, the
numbering is not linked to the above list.

[1].
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum)

[2].
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority)

[3]. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-
capitalism#Ethics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism#Ethics)

~~~
edanm
"No, economists have been arguing and studying for over 200 years, probably
more. Simply saying they've been "studying it" for 200 years doesn't make your
view or your choice of economists correct."

Well, I'd agree with you if there didn't seem to be a consensus. I'm not
talking about choosing specific Economists, I'm talking about a general
consensus among all economists. There _are_ things that all mainstream
economists agree on, at least from my reading on the subject (very limited,
unfortunately, which is why I ask for clarification or sources).

As for your logical fallacies list, I can't say I agree. I doubt you'd be
saying I'm making any of those fallacies if I said that the mainstream
scientific consensus is that gravity exists, or that f=ma. Trying to
understand the consensus of the experts in the subject, and starting from the
assumption that at least there's a _good chance_ they're correct, is a pretty
reasonable and effective worldview.

------
web007
I had an idea once to make something like this, but on a much more
(ridiculously) grand scale. The basic concept was "Society from First
Principles", sort of a cross between Boy Scout Handbook, Wikipedia and
Robert's Rules of Order.

Just as an example of the scale I'm talking about: I wanted the book itself to
be useful / durable, printed on something like Tyvek so it would last through
more than the average paperback. The first thing I was thinking of trying to
figure out is establishing a measurement system under the assumption that all
existing weights & measures disappeared and you would have to recreate them.
Even ignoring the fact that $BOOK would have some fixed size/weight that could
be used a a reference. Really, really first-principles stuff, like with only
wilderness / stone-age type tools available.

I know I wanted to have different volumes, from basic (individual) survival
through communities to nations. Volume titles were something like "Survive",
"Thrive", "Rebuild", "Expand".

~~~
Lost_BiomedE
Do it. You have second mover advantage :)

Make sure to take some from: The Engines of Our Ingenuity
[http://www.uh.edu/engines/](http://www.uh.edu/engines/)

An example excerpt: _That cottage had stood for five hundred years. Thatch is
the thick woven straw that makes the roof. The walls are a mixture of clay and
straw called cob, or sometimes tabby. The material varies, as well as the
name. Cob, or tabby, is a poor man 's masonry. To make it, you mix a
structural material -- like straw, corn stubble, or oyster shells -- with clay
or earth. It makes a solid building material. In one form, we daub mud onto
it. Wattles, by the way, are twigs woven together._

------
Lost_BiomedE
Also, check out the foxfire books. It is very different style and different
purpose, I guess.

From Amazon:

'"In the late 1960s, Eliot Wigginton and his students created the magazine
Foxfire in an effort to record and preserve the traditional folk culture of
the Southern Appalachians. This is the original book compilation of Foxfire
material which introduces Aunt Arie and her contemporaries and includes log
cabin building, hog dressing, snake lore, mountain crafts and food, and "other
affairs of plain living."'

I learned quite a bit about living in a different 'time', good learnin'.

------
beambot
_First, coat a sheet of paper with egg whites containing some dissolved salt,
and allow it to dry. Now dissolve some silver in nitric acid, which will
oxidize the metal to soluble silver nitrate, and spread the solution over your
prepared paper._

OK, scavenge a silver spoon. But now how do I get nitric acid? Google:
[http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Nitric-acid-The-
Complet...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Nitric-acid-The-Complete-
Guide/) Yeah, that wasn't intuitive at all.

 _Sodium thiosulfate is the fixing agent still used today and is relatively
easy to prepare. Bubble sulfur gas through a solution of soda or caustic soda_

Where do I get gaseous sulfer? How do I make caustic soda?

Setting aside the choice of photography as a "critical development" (vs
metallurgy and the like)... this guide needs to be a lot more comprehensive if
a layperson is expected to use it. I mean... I'm a decently-smart guy (PhD in
electronics/robotics). I could build decent electrical circuits (generators,
point-contact radios, basic batteries) from scavenged bulk materials, but I'm
already lost in this chemistry. :-/

~~~
jws
The photography chapter is from the middle of the book. It reads like the
required components were already covered in earlier chapters.

Edit: chapter 5 covers making sulfuric acid and then describes making nitric
acid. It doesn't go into detail other than reacting sulfuric acid with
saltpeter.

------
ChuckMcM
We used to play this game in college. There are lots of interesting
fundamental chemical processes that are being lost either due to neglect or
intent. The library when I was in high school had chemistry texts that
explained how to purify potassium nitrate (salt peter), this was really
helpful in making black powder. When my kids were being home schooled I looked
for it and couldn't find even a rudimentary book on basic chemistry and the
things around us. The librarian suggested that "nobody was interested in that
stuff any more." but clearly I was. Made me sad.

There were a series of books the survivalists kept called the 'Foxfire'
volumes
([http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebookseries.aspx](http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebookseries.aspx))
which basically describe a number of ways to live off the land but not
necessarily to reboot the world.

It seems that there should be fairly useful to make a list of useful
scavenging targets (like the silver spoons in the excerpts)

~~~
yourapostasy
We will need a true "civilization source code" reference for when we settle
the stars, not just for apocalyptic scenarios.

Like much source code, the most stable pieces for our own civilization is
gradually lost to the mists of time, and we end up with mostly binary
executable-only code. Generally where you will find this is in scaling _down_
of processes.

Thought experiment. You start out with the minimum viable population to simply
keep current technological civilization [1]. They are tasked with one task,
and one task only for the rest of their lives before an asteroid too big to
divert hits in 100 years: document what would it take for someone to do what
they do today, because we only have space for 10K people on a space habitat
that we can build in that time. How do you go about building the reboot manual
then?

You will rapidly find that the fractal nature of knowledge exists in the past
as well. There is a tendency today to depict our ancestors as simpletons, but
this is a fatal conceit. They may not have had the scale that we do today, but
they knew a lot of processes and observations that worked for the scale they
did possess, and many times we've lost that knowledge as we never have had to
revisit that scale for nigh on generations now in some endeavors.

Part of the enormously difficult task of booting/rebooting technological
civilization is simply identifying the lower-bound you want to start from,
which defines the scale to start at, and re-capturing the internalized
knowledge that worked at that scale but is uneconomic to pursue at our much
larger industrial scales today.

If you like this area of knowledge archeology, there is actually quite a bit
out there, but you have to look off the beaten path, and "back-port" what we
know today to what was practiced back then to "patch over" misunderstandings
back then. In some areas like organic chemistry and radiological materials,
such misunderstandings misapplied would be fatal. Not a big deal when you have
a huge population base and plenty of other people who will learn from the
mistake and carry on the species' push into the knowledge frontier. But much
more significant if you have a narrow population base and only one or two
specialists representing what used to be maybe hundreds of people in a
specialty field in the distant past.

An example that is fairly-cleaned up in a highly narrow specialty is David
Gingery's series on building a rudimentary machine shop from just scrap metal
and charcoal [2]. You would have to look elsewhere for information on how to
mine metal, smelt it, _etc._ , how to make charcoal, and how to make
progressively more accurate and precise machine tools given a starting point
of what we consider today would be quite inaccurate and imprecise tools, but
it gives you a taste of what's in store for truly rebooting civilization. Even
just to get us back to the 1930-40's level era technology would require a
minimally viable trained, knowledgeable population base in the tens of
millions I would guess.

[1] [http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2010/07/insuffic...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2010/07/insufficient-data.html)

[2]
[http://gingerybookstore.com/MetalWorkingShopFromScrapSeries....](http://gingerybookstore.com/MetalWorkingShopFromScrapSeries.html)

------
aethertap
One of the things that I think would be essential for an effort like this is a
reference that describes the pivotal experiments and resulting insights that
led us to our current level of scientific knowledge. To me, those accumulated
inductive leaps of genius or luck are the real inheritance of our
civilization.

Does anyone know if this book dives into that, or if not is there any other
prepackaged "this is how science got here" kind of resource out there?

~~~
aperrien
You might want to check out James Burke's "Connections" series:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_(TV_series)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connections_\(TV_series\))

~~~
zwegner
Thanks, that looks really awesome, starting to watch now.

Some really cool music in it too, featuring Edgard Varese!

------
Totient
I really like this idea and it got me thinking about a lesser, but still bad,
disaster:

If _all_ computers were to disappear tomorrow (let's say a super-EMP, or
something) how could we quickly restart the digital age? As in, what source
code/chip designs would we really wish we had on paper somewhere, so a
relatively small team could get modern computing going quickly?

From the source code side, I'm thinking the opcodes necessary for a Forth
compiler, a compiler for some restricted version of C in Forth (to keep the
source code size down), a _quality_ C compiler written in the simple-C and the
source code for some vaguely POSIX compliant system (MINIX, maybe?)

I'm curious if it's at all feasible to put that much source code on paper...

~~~
vinceguidry
You mean we have the opportunity to rewrite everything with our accumulated
design know-how without having backwards-compatibility as a requirement and
knowing exactly where the puck is going at all times?

Gimme the damn EMP, I'll set it off myself. I can't think of a more fun way to
spend ten years.

------
nileshtrivedi
It reminded of this SMBC comic: [https://medium.com/the-
nib/a2ac3c553d47](https://medium.com/the-nib/a2ac3c553d47)

------
marcosscriven
This immediately reminded me of a quote from Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
(4th in the trilogy of 5):

"The available worlds looked pretty grim. They had little to offer him because
he had little to offer them. He had been extremely chastened to realize that
although he originally came from a world which had cars and computers and
ballet and Armagnac, he didn't, by himself, know how any of it worked. He
couldn't do it. Left to his own devices he couldn't build a toaster. He could
just about make a sandwich and that was it. There was not a lot of demand for
his services."

~~~
Swizec
Didn't he eventually open the most popular sandwich shop in the universe? Or
at least on that particular planet ...

~~~
marcosscriven
I was purposely trying to avoid the comedy element, as although it was written
as such, I recall at the time it was a very enlightening point for me. How
little most of humanity could rebuild things from first principles.

~~~
dmoo
Also makes me think of the first of
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Californias_Trilogy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Californias_Trilogy)
Even a piece of glass is a prize.

------
raverbashing
Photography is an interesting knowledge (some basic chemistry might help)

Apart from that: metallurgy.

Very few modern things can be made with one's bare hands and without tools.
Tools that help build more tools would be essential for re-bootstrapping.

(Chopping the first trees so that you would have something to make fire so you
could melt metal would be very hard)

~~~
jarrett
I believe historically that was achieved with stone tools. So you make some
stone axes, hatchets, adzes, chisels, etc. You use those to bootstrap a basic
metallurgy setup, including chopping the trees for charcoal.

I think energy is the bigger challenge. In Britain in the 1600s, for example,
the growth rate of trees couldn't keep up with the demand for charcoal. That
was one of the factors that led to the widespread mining of coal, which
previously had not been a major energy source in Britain.

The easily mineable fossil fuels are pretty much depleted now. We rely on
advanced technology to extract the fossil fuels that power us today. A
rebooted civilization might be stuck with charcoal. In which case its energy
usage would be capped by the growth rate of the forests.

~~~
ghshephard
Coal - there is lots, and lots of readily available coal.

~~~
jarrett
Is there still plenty of coal that's easy to extract with primitive
technology? If so, why hasn't it already been mined? (I would think the low-
hanging fruit would go first.)

~~~
ghshephard
The nice thing about coal is that you really just need a pickaxe and a bucket
to mine it, and it's relatively close to the earth. Keep in mind that an
Industrial scale coal mine needs to have massive veins in order to be
efficient, so they aren't really interested in the smaller veins - but there
is enough coal out there to jumpstart a new civilization many times over.

[http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=coal_reser...](http://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=coal_reserves)

------
Zikes
Reminds me of the "Moties" in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven/Jerry
Pournelle. [1]

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God's_Eye#Motie_cul...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God's_Eye#Motie_culture)

~~~
hyp0
Niven used a similar idea for the Library on the Pak Protector homeworld (
_Protector_ ) for persisting knowledge through constant warfare.

And with David Gerrold (who wrote _The Trouble with Tribbles_ Star Trek
episode), _The Flying Sorcerers_ , with "pull up" lines: needing to make the
things to make the other things. (Niven's _Ringworld_ also has a problem with
restarting civilization: no ore beneath the surface - though, why not use
rusted cars etc?) Games like Civilization arguably also use this idea, with
their tree/graph of technologies. _A Fire Upon the Deep_ (FUP, Vinge) does a
little of this, also talks of restoring technology in the Slownness as a hobby
of Uni Depts.

It's always reminded me of people in the Renaissance wondering in awe at
ancient greek civilization (and even today, we use many of their ideas,
particularly civic/municipal/government - arguably, a _kind_ of "technology",
a _way_ of organizing people).

FUP also notes there are some very simple mechanisms that aren't discovered
until technology has progressed well beyond what was needed (because the
principle needed to understand them was very advanced). IIRC the example was a
torsional quantum antennae (with I assume is related to a waveguide antennae).

 _Dragon 's Egg_ (Forward) has the fascinating idea that it's more important
to let people _know_ that something is possible, than to explicitly show them
how. Because then they understand it fully for themselves.

I think also, it has far superior effect-per-information: as another commenter
said, you can't really fit all of modern technology into one book.

~~~
rasz_pl
Your post reminded me of "The Outer Limits" Final Exam episode (1998)
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667892](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667892)

[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xinb18_outer-limits-
final-e...](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xinb18_outer-limits-final-
exam-5of5_shortfilms)

There was another movie/short film that I vaguely remember with protagonist
arguing same thing (with a woman on train?), that inventions are simply
inevitable once we reach appropriate technological level. Radio and telephone
were cited as examples with multiple inventors popping at the same time all
over the world.

~~~
fakeanon
On Hulu: [http://www.hulu.com/watch/68277](http://www.hulu.com/watch/68277)

------
Snail_Commando
Wow, this book seems cool. I plan on checking it out. However, I couldn't help
but think that this book presumes a certain amount of knowledge that I think
would likely be absent by the time the book is recovered.

I'm probably missing the point and taking this too literally, but I think a
few primers should be written for this book: "A self referential guide on
learning to read (bootstrap your English!)" and "A contextual dictionary for
out of vouge 21st century terminology."

It seems as if you were to do this as an explicit "restart guide" for society
(and not an otherwise cool book on human technological development), you would
need to account for the fact that a person born a generation or two after the
collapse would likely have little access to education, the English language
(or at least the ability to read), and context for understanding phrasing,
terminology, and grammar like: "Yet beyond drunken party snapshots...",
"Photographic emulsions are also sensitive to X-rays... allow you to create
medical images...", "We often hear about the Industrial Revolution and ...
mechanical contraptions ... transforming eighteenth-century society", [... and
other concepts that likely require the context of a basic, first world, 21st
century education...].

As a thought exercise, I think it would be really cool to figure out how to
create primers that build on top of this book, ones that help bootstrap
collective knowledge from _all_ the way down to the core concepts and
fundamentals; perhaps starting with the concept of language itself.

~~~
anigbrowl
Yeah, this is clearly designed to sit on coffee tables as an oblique
expression of the owner's cynicism rather than function as an actual field
guide.

~~~
Lost_BiomedE
It is a thinly disguised way to teach.

------
sixQuarks
And the book will only be available on the cloud. That's the only drawback.

~~~
mark_l_watson
Amazon also has the hard cover book edition - I know because I ordered it a
few minutes ago.

I laughed myself when the default search result was for a Kindle version :-)

~~~
jonah
Being on paper might not help.

A short film[1] based on Ken MacLeod's short story "The Surface of Last
Scattering".[2]

[1] [http://scatteredfilm.com/](http://scatteredfilm.com/) [2]
[http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-surface-of-
last-s...](http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-surface-of-last-
scattering-is-to.html)

------
awhitty
What I find interesting is that many (if not all) people who buy this book
aren't really anticipating having to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.
Instead they're more likely interested in learning about the essentials and
fundamentals of society in this dire frame. It almost seems like a "500 things
you should know" book dressed up with a more serious tone.

------
ValG
I will do this, but it will start from the beginning, assuming that all
knowledge (including language and math) is lost.

It will start with images, since are universal, and will teach the basics of
language and mathematics. It will have to be done in such a way that it's self
directed, and to assume that there is no "teacher" available.

It will progress into more and more complicated topics and will explain how
certain breakthrough discoveries and technologies were discovered. It will
provide the framework to recreate scientific knowledge. It will also touch on
civic technologies and management techniques. It will be exhaustive.

The main challenge will be how to condense the knowledge in such a way that it
is accessible to those with no technologies (1 book will not be enough).
Potentially it will be saved in different technologies, each previous
technology will allow you to unlock the next volume of information and
technology (and thus becoming more efficient at storing the info).

Once I get to that point from a financial perspective, I will fund it and will
put a plan in place to freely distribute the information and make sure that
there are set locations across the world where the volumes will be accessible
in the event of a major worldwide catastrophe.

I don't necessarily think it will ever be used, but like the Svalbard Global
Seed Vault [1] it would be a "nice to have"

[1][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault)

~~~
salgernon
You might want to take a look at the thoughts in:

[http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%...](http://www.wipp.energy.gov/picsprog/articles/wipp%20exhibit%20message%20to%2012,000%20a_d.htm)

Where they are basically trying to discuss how to send a message to a future
that may have lost our technology, to warn them of the dangers of a nuclear
waste dump.

------
kaa2102
This reminds me of a physics & engineering teacher I had in high school. He
insisted that we use calculus to derive all of the kinematic equations. I
think that rebooting society should function in a similar manner. We should
remember the key laws, discoveries and methods and then rebuild society better
than it was before.

------
mrbill
Bought this book (the kindle version of course, with a silly grin) and it
actually addresses (in the first chapter) how having a hard-copy version of
Wikipedia is not adequate at all, and it wasn't designed for the task of
rebooting society/technology.

~~~
ssully
How are you enjoying it so far? It sounds like an interesting book and am
considering giving it a whirl.

~~~
mrbill
Definitely worth the $12 price.

------
nerdtalker
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned it yet, but the book that would be
most practical to actually recover society after disaster from a purely
technical standpoint would be the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics.

[http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Chemistry-Physics-94th-
Editio...](http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Chemistry-Physics-94th-
Edition/dp/1466571144)

The sheer amount of information in that huge book is crazy.

Another alternative would be a wikipedia backup stored on an SD card and one
of these or similar: [http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-PANREADER-Pocket-
Wikipedia/...](http://www.amazon.com/WikiReader-PANREADER-Pocket-
Wikipedia/dp/B002N5521W)

------
qal
My first thought was this[1] website from a while ago, which it seems like
compiles much more valuable knowledge for starting out societies than this
book, with topics spanning from agriculture to sanitation. It also remember it
being much more comprehensive, assuming virtually nothing.

Note: This is an incomplete index (40%), full download link here[2].

[1]
[http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/index.htm](http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/index.htm)

[2]
[http://www.cd3wd.com/mdownloads/index.htm](http://www.cd3wd.com/mdownloads/index.htm)

------
malandrew
Every single bittorrenter that is a hoarder of educational resources (ebooks,
instructional videos, etc) would handedly be able to provide this service in
much greater detail than any book anyone could ever compile.

------
chewxy
There used to be a subreddit for these things:
[http://reddit.com/r/ediscover](http://reddit.com/r/ediscover)

I would love for that subreddit to be revived

------
batbomb
I remember browsing through this book once:

[http://www.amazon.com/Instrument-Engineers-Handbook-Vol-
Meas...](http://www.amazon.com/Instrument-Engineers-Handbook-Vol-
Measurement/dp/0849310830)

And I was utterly amazed at the instructions it had for building almost so
many different things. I also have an old physics book from the 60s that
covers a ton of electrical and mechanical engineering concepts in a pretty
basic manner.

------
rhythmvs
A student of mine (Graphic Design major) made his master thesis on this topic.
He devised a pictograhic signage system, developed a “disaster kit”, all items
consistently “branded”, wrote and designed a survival manual. All well-thought
and scrupulously executed. Cum laude.

    
    
        - http://cargocollective.com/sjaakboessen/NOODPAKKET
        - http://sjaakboessen.blogspot.be/2013/

------
Yetanfou
I wonder how many people will add this book to their digital library in
preparation for some cataclysmic event which necessitates rebooting society...

~~~
njharman
> will add this book to their digital library

Those who have little comprehension of what cataclysmic events do to digital
storage.

~~~
userbinator
Modern digital storage, at least. Bits etched into stone tend to be a bit more
durable.

~~~
noxxten
But that would be analog storage, technically.

~~~
Solarsail
If it's literal bits etched into stone, wouldn't it still be digital (the way
sections of a disk platter having a particular polarity is digital)? Analog
would be etching the resultant data in graphical form into the rock. I'm not
sure what to call ASCII art carved into rock, tho.

------
Trufa
The idea on principle is nice, but silly to assume that you can sum up human
knowledge in one book.

Think about the amount of literature people have to read to became doctors,
programmers, engineers, think about "re-inventing" electricity and computers,
the world might be re-built but it would take so many generations and it would
most definitely look nothing like our.

~~~
jonlucc
I think it might be more interesting to try to publish a book or collection of
books that assumes the knowledge is lost, but will preserve the ability to
rebuild. Basically, how to get from raw materials to modern technologies as
quickly as possible. We could then study those objects to rebuild the
knowledge.

~~~
mkempe
We need to record proper methods of thought (rhetoric, logic, epistemology,
scientific experiment, engineering), not just recipes to build things. If we
have the right approach we can do anything from scratch -- we'd just go
through a Second Renaissance.

------
leorocky
Without access to cheap fuel, since I imagine they may be close to depletion
soon I wonder if there can be any recovery.

~~~
nchuhoai
Presumably, any apocalypse would result in a significant reduction of human
population, so I'd say running out of resources is not the primary problem.
More like being able to use them

------
nchuhoai
Slightly OT, but I'd love any suggestions for books/movies that deal with this
topic. Most post-apocalypse media deals with coping with stupid stuff like
Zombies, but I'd love to read/watch more stuff towards how humans would deal
with rebuilding our society. Would we keep Democracy?

~~~
theg2
[http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-
Forstchen/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/One-Second-After-William-
Forstchen/dp/0765356864) One Second After (nearly done with it) is focused on
a small town in the midst of something described here. Pretty good read on the
topic.

~~~
mjmahone17
Very similar concept to S.M. Stirling's "The Change" novels:
[http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-A-Novel-
Change/dp/0451460413](http://www.amazon.com/Dies-Fire-A-Novel-
Change/dp/0451460413)

------
sidcool
I remember reading an article on this. A book similar to this one was compiled
in the early 60s during the cold war when a nuclear holocaust was considered
an eventuality.

They even had a copy of laws in place during an apocalypse. One of the laws
was disbanding of courts and instituting martial law. It was scary.

------
waterlesscloud
By the time Neal Stephenson is done writing you could probably just use his
collected novels.

~~~
jrockway
That's fine as long as refrigerators, bags of milk, and Cap'n Crunch still
exist.

------
wiradikusuma
I can't help but to mention Fallout's GECK
[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Garden_of_Eden_Creation_Kit](http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Garden_of_Eden_Creation_Kit)

------
sogen
Wasn't there a t-shirt with a list of how to make something from scratch??

~~~
CanSpice
Are you thinking of the Time Traveler Essentials Shirt?
[http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=...](http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=QW-
CHEATSHEET&Category_Code=QW)

~~~
sogen
Thanks a lot man! upvoted (y)

------
VikingCoder
I was picturing an App, "So The World Has Ended," which you could run on an
Android that's powered with solar panels.

I pictured RAF / Special Forces handbooks. Describe clouds, knots, wildlife,
foliage, etc.

~~~
kirubakaran
There is a good chance that EMP will be involved. Your device probably won't
work.

~~~
VikingCoder
How about if I store it in a faraday cage?

~~~
kirubakaran
Oh, I thought you meant an app for the phone that you regularly use.

------
resdirector
I'd like to see this tested in a lean way. Perhaps finding a traditional tribe
still living deep in the Amazon jungle, giving them this book and observing
the outcome.

------
outworlder
I think the idea is incredible. But I fear such a "book" would be way too big.

Time to build a fourth pyramid in Egypt.

------
1stop
I suggest it should be written in the form of lego instructions.

No language required.

------
spiritplumber
Hari Seldon would have (pretended to) approved.

------
jerryhuang100
wait, $US 20-28 bucks for a book to rebuild the society? sounds a good steal.
but why you still need US dollars after everything is gone after disasters?

------
coldcode
I wonder if it suggests society not recreate lawyers.

~~~
zhemao
Well, Sir Thomas More certainly felt that way.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(book)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_\(book\))

~~~
devindotcom
He also thought we should all wear identical brown cloth and have no
possessions :D

