- Joined
- Apr 20, 2001
- Messages
- 18,423
The book "To Serve Man".
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
Which Three Books?
- Thread starter LittleHairyApe
- Start date
- Joined
- Oct 8, 1998
- Messages
- 8,917
Ether is fairly volatile but if that's all you have, that's all you have. Various painkillers might be able to be produced. I mean, in general, you're obviously correct that modern pharmaceutical companies would be gone. In other words, you still have to have the knowledge of how to do things and then hope that you can at least go back over a hundred years and get some of that technology to carry on with, etc.
I see where you're going with it but I seriously doubt if anything around here would equal trying to produce morphine or other painkillers, etc.
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2007
- Messages
- 701
Has anyone ever read a canticle for leibowitz?
same theory of stashing books and a great read. the op reminded me of that book.
I think i will compile Wikipedia on a flash drive and stick a note that says
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD YOU BLEW UP!!!!
(Computer not included)
same theory of stashing books and a great read. the op reminded me of that book.
I think i will compile Wikipedia on a flash drive and stick a note that says
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD YOU BLEW UP!!!!
(Computer not included)
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2006
- Messages
- 494
beta_medic -
For the record, I have a bias against least-common-denominator/one-side fits all arguments, but you make several interesting points. Here's what I would offer in reply:
1) I don't think you can assume stone age society right off the bat. Eventually maybe, but not at first. I might be going way out on a limb here, but what do you think of this scenario?
The only way life hypothetically goes on is if there are survivors, i.e. 21th century men and women, endeavor to create schools and pass along whatever knowledge the have to their children. Other people will go around talking to as many survivors and trying to document as much knowledge as possible. We have people who do that today, so it is reasonable to assume that trend would continue, yes? If they succeed, modern society could reemerge relatively quickly, like post WWII Germany and Japan did. In that case advanced books would be very helpful. The knowledge was already there, in a manner of speaking. If they fail to rebuild and reorganize then I imagine the knowledge will be lost in a few generations. Things will probably regress to pre-industrial society or worse, in which case book in general will have very little value, no matter what is in them, for hundred if not thousands of years.
2) Any advanced knowledge is always concentrated into small groups, mostly, IMHO, because specialized knowledge is uninteresting to non-specialists. If an advanced text got into the right hands, someone would eventually figure it out, no matter how advanced, and put it to use. That's how we are as a race. Inquisitive. So I personally wouldn't worry about needing to dumb down material for the general public, because they won't need it or use no matter how dumb you make it. But the bright guys and gals will, as long as they get while the batteries in their calculators still work, but that's a fourth book isn't it?
3) If high level of specialized knowledge were left behind, it would do at least 2 good things:
a)It would enable growth at a faster pace, thus allowing greater specialization faster and faster, thereby easing starvation, pestilence, hopefully a variety of preventable suffering, as more good minds can be spared from subsistence living to engineer, research, dream, invent, philosophize, etc..
b) Also it might dispell, by our example, the hubristic notion that a society can somehow magically industrialize and technologize its way out of needing to also be good neighbors, good parents, and nice people in general.
For the record, I have a bias against least-common-denominator/one-side fits all arguments, but you make several interesting points. Here's what I would offer in reply:
1) I don't think you can assume stone age society right off the bat. Eventually maybe, but not at first. I might be going way out on a limb here, but what do you think of this scenario?
The only way life hypothetically goes on is if there are survivors, i.e. 21th century men and women, endeavor to create schools and pass along whatever knowledge the have to their children. Other people will go around talking to as many survivors and trying to document as much knowledge as possible. We have people who do that today, so it is reasonable to assume that trend would continue, yes? If they succeed, modern society could reemerge relatively quickly, like post WWII Germany and Japan did. In that case advanced books would be very helpful. The knowledge was already there, in a manner of speaking. If they fail to rebuild and reorganize then I imagine the knowledge will be lost in a few generations. Things will probably regress to pre-industrial society or worse, in which case book in general will have very little value, no matter what is in them, for hundred if not thousands of years.
2) Any advanced knowledge is always concentrated into small groups, mostly, IMHO, because specialized knowledge is uninteresting to non-specialists. If an advanced text got into the right hands, someone would eventually figure it out, no matter how advanced, and put it to use. That's how we are as a race. Inquisitive. So I personally wouldn't worry about needing to dumb down material for the general public, because they won't need it or use no matter how dumb you make it. But the bright guys and gals will, as long as they get while the batteries in their calculators still work, but that's a fourth book isn't it?
3) If high level of specialized knowledge were left behind, it would do at least 2 good things:
a)It would enable growth at a faster pace, thus allowing greater specialization faster and faster, thereby easing starvation, pestilence, hopefully a variety of preventable suffering, as more good minds can be spared from subsistence living to engineer, research, dream, invent, philosophize, etc..
b) Also it might dispell, by our example, the hubristic notion that a society can somehow magically industrialize and technologize its way out of needing to also be good neighbors, good parents, and nice people in general.
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2006
- Messages
- 494
Has anyone ever read a canticle for leibowitz?
same theory of stashing books and a great read. the op reminded me of that book.
I think i will compile Wikipedia on a flash drive and stick a note that says
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD YOU BLEW UP!!!!
(Computer not included)
This is very funny.
Is that "Canticle for Leibowitz" by Miller? Is it funny?
Soooo. Is that also one vote for "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", or just "So Long and Thanks for the Fish" ?
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2007
- Messages
- 701
Yup its the one by miller, not so much funny. but it does have its moments. its just a well written book IMO.
And hitchhikers guide is also a must hahaha
And hitchhikers guide is also a must hahaha
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2006
- Messages
- 494
It's going on my list. BTW, I found a free downloadable copy of Tunnels in the Sky. The only drawback is that it is one of 54 Heinlein books in one huge pdf file (~27 MB). Tunnel, IIRC, starts at page 5517, and it isn't the last book. If anyone cares, I found it on rapidshare as a file called heilein_robert.7z. That's the other thing. You'll need a freeware 7zip unzipper, if you don't have one already.
http://rapidshare.com/files/45539369/Heinlein_Robert.7z
http://rapidshare.com/files/45539369/Heinlein_Robert.7z