
CD3WD Archives the Information Necessary to Rebuild Society - fogus
http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/cd3wd/index.htm
======
blinkingled
Amazing that how much basic knowledge society is leaving behind - it never is
needed for the common guy and so we never know it. To that extent this is a
huge first step in preserving those "long forgotten" bits.

Ironically this relies on world's communication systems being intact and no
one person knows how it all works end to end!

Someone should do a similar archive for world's commonly used communication
systems. I have frequently wondered if telecommunications systems, Internet
systems and Satellites all break and have to be rebuilt from scratch - how
many people know how it all works end-to-end? To that effect, those who know
the parts should collaborate to consolidate that knowledge.

~~~
eneveu
I've often wondered how long it would take us to rebuild computers from
scratch, in case of a world catastrophe (nuclear war, zombie invasion...). Of
course, we would have other, more urgent needs (food, shelter, healthcare...),
but it's an interesting thought experiment.

I use a computer every day, but I wouldn't know where to start to rebuild one
from scratch. There are books like "Linux from scratch", but it is far from
enough: we would need to "re-invent" electricity, silicon, assembly languages,
operating systems... With the division of labour, nobody has the knowledge to
build all this.

I think it would take _centuries_ to re-create what we have now. The cool
thing is, we wouldn't need to care about backward compatibility / legacy apps,
and we could skip C++ and immediately standardize on Lisp ;)

~~~
tomjen3
It wouldn't take centuries and the division of labor isn't worse than that you
don't need more than 6 or so people with the right skills to build the
equivalent of a 1985 computer.

The problem is that they would get killed once the security of the world
(police and the military) disappear and humanity decent into chaos.

------
brc
I randomly chose an entry to look at:

UNDERSTANDING POULTRY MEAT AND EGG PRODUCTION

By Dr. H.R. Bird

A guide to chicken production by Dr Bird? I had a double-take to check that
this whole thing wasn't a giant joke. But I guess it's just a case of names
guiding careers.

~~~
regularfry
Or "nominative determinism", as New Scientist calls it:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism>

~~~
cscheid
apparently it's a collection of statistical flukes:
<http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2011-02000-001/>

------
jarin
This reminds me of a greatly expanded version of Ryan North's "Time Traveler
Essentials Shirt":

[http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_C...](http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=QW-
CHEATSHEET&Category_Code=QW)

------
regularfry
The very first time I heard about Wikipedia, this is pretty much what I
imagined it to be.

------
bruceboughton
No society would be complete without banana beer:
<http://www.cd3wd.com/cd3wd_40/ITDG/BANBEER/EN/index.htm>

------
vikingux
There are some interesting/strange "startupy" type ideas on this page:
<http://www.cd3wd.com/ideas/index.htm>

for example: "Sms classified advertising for the 3rd world and developed
countries" and "Democracy Promotion - Hit-man funds for elimination of
internationally-designated dictators "

~~~
Kilimanjaro
"Hit-man funds for elimination of internationally-designated dictators"

Where is the donation button?

~~~
OO7
You wouldn't want that. But OTOH it exists already: economic hitmen and the
jackals.

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Confessions_o...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man)

btw: maybe this is to be torrented on meshed freedomboxen?

------
thret
I randomly chose an entry and found 'Women and Graphics'. Not only was I
disappointed, I was confused.

~~~
unwind
I, too, randomly chose a topic (building water tanks from bamboo and food-
grade plastic film), and its image links were broken. Kind of worrying for the
future.

------
transfabulator
'A plough, and animals to pull it.'

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6H-w9Rm46o#t=4m>

------
ffffruit
This reminded me of Isac Aasimov's foundation.

