What books do you pick to rebuild civilization?

[Crossroads Inc.]

In the original book "The Time Machine"
At the very end, when the Hero travels back to the far future to try and rebuild mankind; his housekeeper remarks to his friend that:
"A few books seem to be missing, he must have taken them with him." to which his friend responds.
"I wonder what books, what books would you take to rebuild humanity?"

Well, an interesting question...

What books out there do you think crystalize various aspects, accomplishments, and knowledge one would use to start things over?

[Broomstick]

Definitely, you'd want to take books on some very basic topics such as how to build a shelter with primitive tools/materials from overnight camp to sturdy if simple dwelling, basics on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry, crafts like making clothing from raw source materials, and so on. If you don't have the basics of food, water, and shelter covered you won't be able to rebuild a society, much less a civilization.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It very much depends on what you mean by what state the world is in. If it's like The Time Machine where you have a far-future society that is at least able to support itself, you'll take different books to, say, the immediate post-nuclear world or the post-epidemic world.

For instance, if you already have a basic level of agriculture and society to work with, you would take books on more advanced agriculture, basic machinery (stuff like waterwheels), basic medicine and so on. However, for the immediate post-cataclysm world where you have small bands of survivors, then the basic details Broomstick mentioned are better.

Of course, in the immediate post-cataclysm world you might also want to take books on machine maintenence if some stuff is still intact so you can keep it working as long as possible.

For the longer-term stuff, high-school level textbooks on science and medicine would be most useful I think. Definitely nothing religious however. I would also avoid taking any "great works" of literature, so that people would be encouraged to create their own from scratch.

[Channel72]

Well, we'd probably want "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" from Charles Petzold along with the Church-Turing thesis, just so we can preserve some concept of how binary computers work.

[Ahriman238]

Well, we'd probably want "Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software" from Charles Petzold along with the Church-Turing thesis, just so we can preserve some concept of how binary computers work.

Yes. Clearly that is what is important.


Depends on what there's space for really. A couple of friends and I had a game/thought experiment once where we had a few weeks notice before the apocalypse and a cruise ship to evacuate our friends/family/anyone we could convince to come so we could be safe and rebuild. We were more focused on what tools and materials we'd need for immediate survival, but one thing we agreed on was to take approximately all the books we owned, could borrow buy or download. All our culture, literature and history, everything on survival, agriculture, medicine and engineering.

[Adam Reynolds]

One I would definitely include, even though it is somewhat dated, is the Feynman Lectures on Physics as it was intended for those without any previous knowledge in physics. Obviously this is assuming that the world is sufficiently advanced to be able to not need the basics.

One other reference that might be useful is books on truly elementary reading in th event that the population doesn't know how to read.

[Borgholio]

I'd definitely want to include basic mathematics and engineering books. Depending on how far down the tubes civilization went, I'd want to make sure we had the knowledge base to build basic machines such as wind / watermills, forges, pumps, bridges, etc...

Basic medicine and first-aid texts would be a no-brainer. Also some astronomy books, since reading the stars is critical for agriculture and timekeeping.

[Crossroads Inc.]

I guess i should specify, Since my friend was discussing the movie, for 'Control purposes' you could think of that as the starting zone with the Eloi people.

Basically a primitive but self sustaining Agricultural society.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Then in that case it's books on more advanced agriculture, basic farm machinery (windmills driving threshing machines and mills etc), basic medicine and sanitation, basic mathematics and science books, astronomy books (although these will be of limited use if we are either in the far future or another world). Perhaps some books on basic legal principles as well.

[Starglider]

If this is the Time Machine protagonist going back to the Eloi / Morlock era, the Morlocks already have a fairly high level of technology (quite likely more advanced than the 1895 contemporary tech). Assuming the Eloi are actually the victims you want to save (various derrivative works put this in doubt) then you'll want military tactics with an emphasis on guerrilla warfare. Assuming victory philosophical, political and historical texts may be vital to giving the Morlocks & Eloi a model of how to live peacefully in a democratic society etc.

In the general case, anatomy, diagnosis, first aid & general biology have to be a high priority, for the sheer number of lives you'd save in advancing medical care faster. Although if you have a time machine I'm not clear why you'd be limited to one trip.

[Borgholio]

astronomy books (although these will be of limited use if we are either in the far future or another world).

Regardless of the age of the Earth, basic astronomic principles will still apply. There will still be a North Star (or close to it), you'll be able to measure the seasons based on the Earth's precession, you'll still be able to navigate with a sextant, if the moon still exists, you'll be able to predict the tides, etc...

[Zeropoint]

The Eloi are nothing more than cattle. The Morlocks are the true heirs of humanity!

[Starglider]

The Eloi are nothing more than cattle. The Morlocks are the true heirs of humanity!

The Morlocks are supposed to be descended from the 'working classes' and the Eloi from the 'upper classes', so if you implement [standard 201x SDN 'social justice' engram set] then yes probably. Actually in the original book the Eloi were literally devolved to a lower intelligence and docile / non-curious personalities, so you really wouldn't have much luck getting them to rebel or advance technologically. Later remakes & retcons made them closer to contemporary humans and the passivity more of a cultural rather than genetic feature.

[Eternal_Freedom]

astronomy books (although these will be of limited use if we are either in the far future or another world).

Regardless of the age of the Earth, basic astronomic principles will still apply. There will still be a North Star (or close to it), you'll be able to measure the seasons based on the Earth's precession, you'll still be able to navigate with a sextant, if the moon still exists, you'll be able to predict the tides, etc...

Oh yes the principles will still work, but if you are far into the future (even only a few thousand years) you won't have many recognizable constellations, if any. Having a North Star is pure chance, we just happen to have a bright star within 1 degree of the North Celestial Pole. Now it's Polaris, but 4,000 years ago it was Vega I think. It cycles few several on a 26,000 year cycle more or less. There is no corresponding star in the south.

What I meant was that if the post-apocalypse is relatively close in time, like fifty to a hundred years, then the star maps in current books would still (mostly) be correct. In a thousand years, they won't be.

Also, if you're on another planet, all bets are off. You have to re-map the entire sky and that will take at least a local year to determine which stars should be were at midsummer or midwinter. Having modern books will help but won't drastically speed things up, since we've been using the same basic principles for thousands of years.

[Thanas]

The most important thing here are language books. Very seldom is knowledge from the past truly lost, most of it is just inaccessible without translations.

[Purple]

Given the conditions described I would most likely take one of the Victorian age farming manuals. Seriously, those things held everything from recipes to farming techniques to instructions on how to cross breed plants and what to look for when doing so. And they were written with the average 19th century peasant in mind so they should be easier for the future-primitives to understand.

[Crossroads Inc.]

Yeah modern navigation is faked.
The time machine, both movie and book versions, take place some 200,000 years in the future.

As for what version, my friend and I were discussing the original movie. In the 2002 remake the time machine is blown up to kill off all the morlocks so there was no chance to go back.

I always assumed the traveler never went back to get more supplies, but who knows.

Would be interesting to see one of those old farming book

[Ahriman238]

Does anyone know a good history book that explains how people did what they did, what specific advances were made in each field? If so, include that, some basic English books and a dictionary and we should be off to a good start.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I'm surprised I didn't mention it before, but a decent illustrated encyclopedia would be good.

[Purple]

That and primary school grade English books. You know, the stuff they use to teach children how to read and write.

[Welf]

My list would be:
-Medical text book. That's knowledge that is not as intuitive as farming or
-Practical books like those victorian How-To books
-Books about agriculture and aanimalhusbandry on a more abstract level
-Mathematical formulae and tables. Weighs less than 100g and will speed up science by 2.000 years
-Some civil law book. Efficient state is good state.
-Encyclopedia. The knowledge itself is useless, but it gives generations to come an idea what is possible.
-Reading for beginners. It would suck if the books aforementioned become useless because I break my neck the second day.

[Irbis]

One edited printed copy of Wikipedia? Broad enough to be always useful, gives ideas what to do in almost every situation and science even when it lacks details. Yes, trolls, inaccuracies, and all, but it beats every other encyclopaedia and compendium we have now anyway. Maybe also include wiki version written in 'simple english' with notes how to read, too.

For extra points, attach title page with big "STC" printed in bold letters

[slebetman]

One edited printed copy of Wikipedia?

That gigantic book from the article is only 0.01% of Wikipedia. I think we'd be better off with the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica (which incidentally my dad bought and I spent countless hours as a kid reading random topics from it like how I browse the web today).

[Scrib]

For the longer-term stuff, high-school level textbooks on science and medicine would be most useful I think. Definitely nothing religious however. I would also avoid taking any "great works" of literature, so that people would be encouraged to create their own from scratch.

Dunno, useful tool for maintaining social cohesion in whatever apocalyptic or pre-tech era you land in.

[Irbis]

That gigantic book from the article is only 0.01% of Wikipedia. I think we'd be better off with the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica (which incidentally my dad bought and I spent countless hours as a kid reading random topics from it like how I browse the web today).

Yes, it is 0.01%, with two caveats - it is very thick paper (I have 5000 page book that is maybe 1/11 as thick) and edited as in we could skip all the 'noise' articles (vast majority of cultural ones, such as articles on superheroes, tiny stuff important only locally, you'd only need synopsis of the major works). You can't edit paper Britannica in such a way, meaning it would have less useful data ratio, and technical information we'd need to rebuild civilization tends to be longer and have more details in wiki. Though, I guess it could do too, especially if we could combine best aspects of the two.