Which Three Books?

L

LittleHairyApe

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Mar 30, 2006
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This has been rolling around in the back of my brain for a couple of weeks. Suppose we're looking at a real disaster, way beyonf TEOTWAWKI, say a multiple extinction event type disaster (asteroid + supervolcano + 24/7 american idol reruns, or whatever scenario is *really* bad in your world), and you knew you were probably going to die as well as everyone you ever knew up to and including 99% of all life on the planet.

What three books would you save in some tiny, buried, well-protected place to be discovered at a later date after the world has (hopefully) recovered and is operating on a stone age level? Let's say generations have passed, and knowledge, science, etc. were all blown away. What three books would you want to put in the hands of you grandchildren's grandchildren, who are saddled with having to rebuild more-or-less from scratch, to help insure the survival of the human race? My picks would be a book each on:

advanced algebra, microbiology, and astro-physics
 
Hmmm hard to say what books id like to put in. Probably one on our languages so they could learn abot those.

Second would probably be about ecology and how important it is to protect the natural environment.

Third, a book on our history
 
You know, on a serious note, I wouldn't leave anything. If we screw it up so bad that we wipe ourselves out the we have little to teach them. If it's a natural disaster that wipes us out then no matter what we leave behind, the next generation will make all the same mistakes anyway.

Regardless, while I don't have any specific titles off the top of my head and we're making the assumption that these people would somehow be able to read our languages, I would pick a book about astronomy and physics, one about architecture and building, and another about chemistry. If I had a fourth choice, I'd leave them a book of philosophy.
 
I would leave a Bible, Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", and a simple math book (such as the one you suggested). The Bible/Darwin would ensure that the next civilization develops the ability to question things around it and thus develop crucial skills needed in surviving. I would include the math book because too much of today's life/culture depends on simple math skills to leave it out.
 
How about:

The Riverside Shakespeare
a photographic anatomy book
a really good astronomy book

Now having said that, I only have one of the above.
 
Math book is probably a very good choice. The problem with the Bible is the assumption that the rest of the world currently believes it. What about the other great world religious texts? That's why I said, vaguely, a book of philosophy. A book about the world's religions might be a pretty fair substitute.

Of course, a book about art would also tell them something about who we were.

But remember, we wouldn't necessarily need to *teach* them anything to survive. Our species has done all right for 3 million years so far. If they're primitives they aren't going to be able to understand our books for hundred or thousands of years anyway.

I've got two old spear points, both about 10,000 years old. The folks who made and used these wouldn't have had a prayer in understanding any of the books we're discussing. Instead, they could probably have taught us a few things about living with the earth.
 
I picked asteroids + volcanoes + bears, oh my, to take our collective mistakes of humanity out of the equation, i.e. what could we pass along that is positive and might save someone a few wrong turns or a few stubbed toes. Obviously we couldn't save them, our successors, from themselves, but we could let them know we were thinking about them, that we made a lot of mistakes, and that we wished them well. And I thought about a Bible or some such, and decided maybe that would a bit too touchy a subject to pick for one of three books. Anyway to each his own.

Q: Does anyone think a book on agriculture might be more useful than algebra?

CSG - you know I went back and forth between astro-fizz and chemistry. In the end I remembered what Galileo had to go through, and I voted for astro-physics.

True - You made a good point. Of my three choices, I also have only one on hand. That makes me laugh. :thumbup: for honesty.

Safety - I'd like more of this generation to read Darwin's actual words too, so of course I like your thinking there.
 
LittleHairyApe said:
Don - Any particular kinds of surgery? Anything about anesthesia?

CSG - Why thanks for noticing. :)
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Dental Procedures including dental surgery, general surgery that would cover cardio-thoracic, abdominal and things like amputations, etc. If a book exists on general anesthesia and especially the liberal use of local anesthetics, that would be a great third choice indeed. I used to have a copy of "Emergency War Surgery," if you want to shit your pants, get a copy of that and read it.

The reason I picked those and not other books is because the other books are plentiful and would probably always be saved by a lot of different people. This has nothing to do with my own religious views, but I would not waste the chance on saving the Bible if I could only make three choices. The chances on about 3.67 billion Bibles not surviving in some type of global conflagration are minimal. A book on how to properly drain an infected tooth and then properly rip it out from its moorings or how to perform some other types of basic surgeries...you would be hard pressed to find.
 
Don Rearic said:
Dental Procedures including dental surgery, general surgery that would cover cardio-thoracic, abdominal and things like amputations, etc. If a book exists on general anesthesia and especially the liberal use of local anesthetics, that would be a great third choice indeed. I used to have a copy of "Emergency War Surgery," if you want to shit your pants, get a copy of that and read it.
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The only major fly in the ointment that I can see is that in order to use local anestheics, someone has to have made said pharmaceuticals. What if there are no more pharmaceutical companies, or if the people who knew how to make that stuff that supports the highly advanced pharmaceutical industry were all dead? The age of such wonderful conveniences dates back, IIRC, to the mid to late 1800's and folks were using ether and/or alcohol (which is less than ideal) for general anesthesia. Maybe a book on herbal remedies or herbal pharmacology (if such a thing exists in book form) might be more useful. Do you see where I'm going with this?
 
1. A book on brewing beer
2. A book on distilling spirits
3. War and Peace so they have something to read while they wait for something to drink
 
You know, if the whole world had to start all over again, I think part of the naturl maturing and growing process of civilization is self-discovery; that is, they should figure it out on their own. I think it's way too complicated to give a brand new "stone-aged" people books on surgery, advanced chemistry, or physics. That's like giving a first grader books on quantum mechanics and saying "Learn this, it's useful." Without an extremely thorough background in those areas, those books would be useless for a long time.

That being said, I do think religion is something that can be explained and understood (relatively speaking; I don't want to get into a whole thing about understanding faith) through something like the Bible. It has good moral stories and lessons that even a basic society can comprehend.

The other two books? A fourth grade general science book. It has lots of good info about many scientific topics: biology, geology, physics, and it's all fairly easy to understand without a lot of experience in those areas.

And.... a college level history book that covers everything from the first civilizations in the Mesopotamia region to now. It will not only give the people a record of our achievements, but hopefully they can learn from our mistakes and create a well grounded society.

I do think books on surgery and dentistry and astrophysics are important, but to a very basic society? I don't think they could appreciate the information until they understood the basis of those areas. If you give them the basics, I think that will start them off in the right direction.
 
No religious texts for me. If it was a war that destroyed the Earth, it was probably because of one or all of those pesky books.

Choosing three books is tough. I don't know specific titles, but here's the type of books I'd take:
A book on farming and animal husbandry.
A comprehensive medical text
An engineering text for building simple machinery

I know absolutely nothing about these three disciplines, so I'm not sure how much help they would be.
 
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