The Knowledge
by Lewis Dartnell · first published 2014
77% recommend23% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Readable survey of the first principles behind modern technology, from agriculture, food and clothing to medicine, chemistry, smelting and computers. Suits curious readers who want to see how fragile civilization is.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch? If our technological society collapsed tomorrow, perhaps from a viral pandemic or catastrophic asteroid impact, what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible-a guide for rebooting the world? Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most o
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…2000 years ago got heliocentric and distances - impressive. Just working through how we got here, the technology and the inventions, and you do see the fragility of all we have. I also recommend The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell, and How to defend your castle by William Gurstelle, and there is a youtube channel "primitive technology" which is kind of amazing if not wholly down this road
on “The Quest for the Next Billion-Dollar Color” ↗For those that would like to know how to rebuild civilization, the book The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell is a handy reference on things to know and do. General bibliography: * http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/bibliography/ Deep dives on particular topics of agriculture, food and clothing,…
on “A Compass for the Politics of Collapse” ↗You might like to try reading The Knowledge: How To Rebuild Our World After An Apocalypse. It's a very interesting book, and basically works its way through from the simplest agriculture to reinventing computers https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knowledge-Rebuild-World-After-Apoca...
on “Ask HN: How to keep tech running in the apocalypse?” ↗In a rebuilding event, we'd have the advantage of knowing it was possible and desirable. This book, for instance, would be worth kingdoms in such a situation - https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Afterm...
on “Space explosion reveals possible hints of dark matter” ↗This book comes close: The Knowledge: How To Rebuild Our World After An Apocalypse http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knowledge-Rebuild-World-After-Apocal...
on “A Basic Guide for Curious Minds: Review of “Thing Explainer”” ↗This is the sort of thread that hits me right in the wallet. Here are some books I've given as gifts recently: * The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm, Lewis Dartnell[1] * The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb[2] * Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse[3] * The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris and Steven Hayes[4]…
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗I also can't access this article -- would love to check it out, if/when it's back online. No idea if this article mentions the book, "The Knowledge" by Lewis Dartnell (see above) -- however I would highly recommend the book if anyone is interested on the actual "knowledge" necessary to reboot a civilization. It goes into some depth on the actual…
on “Could we reboot a modern civilisation without fossil fuels?” ↗The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch by Lewis Dartnell http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18114087-the-knowledge
on “Railroad Tycoon” ↗There’s a great book about exactly this - including an attempt to help you reboot it by giving people the Igor clues in the right order. The knowledge, How to rebuild the world from scratch https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knowledge-How-Rebuild-World-Scratch...
on “Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?” ↗The Knowledge - Lewis Dartnell It changed my perspective on modern civilization and the necessity of global shipping & trading.
on “Ask HN: What book should I read next?” ↗There's also: "The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm" https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Afterm...
on “Simplifier” ↗Anyone interested in this should check out the book, The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm by Lewis Dartnell.
on “How long would society last during a total grid collapse?” ↗The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Afte...
on “How to Make a CPU – A Simple Picture Based Explanation” ↗…more. Time are changing. When Orwell wrote this piece he was influenced by the war, extreme situations like wars or famines always cloud your judgements. I recommend reading the seemingly unrelated The Knowledge by Lewis Dartnell. It describes the skills that would be necessary to rebuild civilisation after a hypothetical global cataclysm. Why is it relevant? If you read it, you will realize that all of civilization…
on “Notes on Nationalism (1945)” ↗I love this kind of Books! In a much more general tone, there is "The Knowledge: How To Rebuild Our World After An Apocalypse" by Lewis Dartnell. This explains the first principles of a lot of things we take for granted in the modern world, from agriculture to food and clothing,…
on “How These Things Work – A book about CS from first principles (2016)” ↗