Needed, more detailed knowledge

[Guy-prog]

I like this book and I think the author accomplished what he set out to do. But to actually DO any of this stuff I would need more information.

I started out in residential construction so when I build something I want plans and material specifications. I like the drawing of the pyrolysis machine on page 117. But I could never build one from that drawing and the author's description. I would need a to-scale mechanical drawing for each component and detail of the materials used in that component and a step by step description of how to assemble all the components (with some diagrams). Perhaps a master machinist with 40 years experience could build it just from the drawing presented BUT all the machinists with 40 years experience will be long dead when somebody tries to build one from this book. Please do not take this as a criticism of this book! But there needs to be one or more book repositories built around and to expand this book into the detail needed. With enough time and money and researchers to find the books needed or go to museums and create scale drawings of hundreds or thousands of machines and detailed processes and text books to teach the skills, you could eventually build a repository that had most of what would be needed to rebuild civilization.

The author briefly touches on the subject of mathematics and measurement (metric system). There are probably more than two dozen fields of mathematics that should be represented by books, plus workbooks. The same for the sciences. To say chemistry, physics, and biology is not even a good start. Then there is engineering in it's many fields. How do we even know that potential future user can even read the language all the books are written in and maybe more than one language. Must have books teaching language and reading, etc. What about tools, like a slide rule and logarithms.

[lewis]

All very fair points! The idea behind The Knowledge was to provide the most important kernels of knowledge that would accelerate the redevelopment of civilisation. It may well take an experience machinist to construct e.g. the pyrolysis machine, but it could take centuries of stumbling around in ignorance before society stumbled across pyrolysis again if the general principle is provided as a hint.

And of course, if you take the possibility of an apocalypse and the total collapse of society seriously then you would want to gather together far more than the information that can be squeezed into a single paperback popular science book. You'd want shelves of practical guides, detailed explanations of mathematics, and so on...

[Guy-prog]

I understand and agree with your point about the general principal of providing hints. There were many such hints in the book that I didn't know about. Basically the whole of chapter 5, except for charcoal. A lot more than just chapter 5, too. I have been thinking about this for several years but I see now that my thoughts have been more about detailed construction plans for machines. I hadn't even thought about processes of extracting valuable natural substances from plants as in chapter 5. I was thinking more about building spinning wheels, looms, steam engines, early internal combustion engines, making steel, and much more. Also self study materials for math, science (especially physics and chemistry), medicine, and more.

A good example of what I mean about detailed plans, specs, and instructions is the book "A Charcoal Kiln Made of Cinder-Concrete Blocks" by Olson & Hicock, available from http://www.YourOldTimeBookStore.com. I've been looking for a good book on making charcoal and I found one.

We are in agreement about needing additional books. Books that expand on every hint provided in your book. In many cases books that expand on some of those books will be needed. Books that provide detailed construction plans for every gadget used by every process like those processes in chapter 5 and later chapters. You provide some of this in the Further Reading and References section of your book.

It is possible for an individual such as myself to acquire many books (and even more PDF files such as the Appropriate Technology Library mentioned on page 299), but how best to secure/preserve the materials that I acquire? Simply leaving them for my descendants, even if safely packed, will likely fail to make them available some generations down the road. I like the idea of what has been done about seed vaults as seen on the Science or History channel. But I don't even begin to have funds for that. Accumulating available knowledge now can be done but making sure that knowledge is available when needed in the future is something else again.