The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm

· Sold by Penguin
4.6
26 reviews
Ebook
352
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch?

If our technological society collapsed tomorrow 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?

Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest—or even the most basic—technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, or even how to produce food for yourself?


Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can’t hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn’t just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all—the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. 


The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world.

Ratings and reviews

4.6
26 reviews
Fri-end Z-one
June 16, 2018
Anyone who loves their progeny and is familiar with gauging future possibilities and probabilities based on knowledge of current and past events will want this book.
36 people found this review helpful
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Kaevon Wasson
August 5, 2017
Awesome
22 people found this review helpful
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Alif Khan
July 19, 2020
I like it
3 people found this review helpful
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About the author

Dr. Lewis Dartnell is a UK Space Agency research fellow at the University of Leicester and writes regularly for New ScientistBBC FocusBBC Sky at NightCosmos, as well as newspapers including The TimesThe Guardian, and The New York Times. He has won several awards, including the Daily Telegraph Young Science Writer Award. He also makes regular TV appearances and has been featured on BBC HorizonStargazing LiveSky at Night, and numerous times on Discovery and the Science channel. His scientific research is in the field of astrobiology he works on how microorganisms might survive on the surface of Mars and the best ways to detect signs of ancient Martian life. He is thirty-two years old.

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