The Burning Library (RAR!)

[Ahriman238]

Began as a class exercise before reading Fahrenheit 451.

In the near future, your lifetime, civilization finally goes mad and turns on literature as the source of it's problems. The AL3Xandria virus will purge every computer of lit, and the mass book burnings begin tomorrow. You have one night to save whatever you can. There will be searches, so many things you hide will likely be found, but you do have a 2x2 ft. strongbox, rated to survive fire and water for centuries, and a plan to bury it in your backyard. If things sober up in your lifetime, you can always dig them up. If not, a forlorn hope, a light flung into the future in hopes of a hand to catch it.

What is the priority order for saving books? Which are the most necessary to save?

[PKRudeBoy]

A whole bunch of terabyte hard drives with as much as can be downloaded before the virus hits. Space is such a 90's thing.

[Purple]

A whole bunch of terabyte hard drives with as much as can be downloaded before the virus hits. Space is such a 90's thing.

This. Also make sure to include an operating system and instructions in print on how to use the devices in the future.

[Zaune]

Project Gutenberg and every torrent I can grab.

[Starglider]

A whole bunch of terabyte hard drives with as much as can be downloaded before the virus hits. Space is such a 90's thing.

Archival lifetime of tape storage is 30 years ish, hard drives have higher density and less error correction, so this is not useful for long term storage, even assuming competence and willingness to scan the platters in a lab for data recovery. Old flash storage was better, but consumer stuff is now down below 10 years archival life now due to the charge leaking out of the tiny cells more easily - flash is also much harder to read directly (without a compatible computer). Optical storage is better, you can get DVD-Rs certified for 100 years archival life, although in this scenario you might not have any on hand.

In this 'no pre-planning' scenario you would of course start downloading stuff to a DVD-burner while simultaneously packing some books in there, because (a) you don't have eight cubic feet of blank digital storage media on hand and (b) even if you did you aren't going to fill it in one night of downloading.

[Spekio]

I would do the same, and try to pass the files to new hard drives every two years or so.

[bilateralrope]

I'd be more worried about figuring out how to survive this madness. Preferably by escaping to a sane country.

[Jub]

I'd probably make an attempt at archiving files to disks and hard drives as well. I'm a fair enough ways out of town and without a car so the physical copies I could save would be few at best. At least with a hard drive I may have a chance to save something.

[Simon_Jester]

I am sincerely curious as to their definition of "literature" if they're going after stuff online.

Will they be frying technical manuals too?

[Borgholio]

I think the key is how to read this stuff when the world finally does calm down. Assuming they'd even hold data that long, would a post-apeshit world be able to read a modern hard drive, CD, DVD, M-Disc, or anything like that? If not, what's the point of archiving if you can never recover what you've saved?

I'd say that if I'm planning for the future, I'd put small print books that could be read by anybody. Engineer's guidebooks, astronomy texts, basic "how-to" manuals for a variety of tasks, biology and medicinal textbooks, things like that. Stuff that would shave a few thousand years off of having to repeat history should everything goes south.

[Welf]

Began as a class exercise before reading Fahrenheit 451.

In the near future, your lifetime, civilization finally goes mad and turns on literature as the source of it's problems. The AL3Xandria virus will purge every computer of lit, and the mass book burnings begin tomorrow. You have one night to save whatever you can. There will be searches, so many things you hide will likely be found, but you do have a 2x2 ft. strongbox, rated to survive fire and water for centuries, and a plan to bury it in your backyard. If things sober up in your lifetime, you can always dig them up. If not, a forlorn hope, a light flung into the future in hopes of a hand to catch it.

What is the priority order for saving books? Which are the most necessary to save?

"The Protocolls of the Elders of Zion" and "Mein Kampf". I hate them jews. And "The Prophecies" by Nostradamus for spiritual guidance.

On a more serious note, and if I reduce it to what I have available in my room now, my economics book, Kafka, Tucholsky, Paul Watzlawick, a not boring book on philosophy, two book on how empires rise and fall, and if there's place Lord of the Rings.

[Broomstick]

A whole bunch of terabyte hard drives with as much as can be downloaded before the virus hits. Space is such a 90's thing.

This. Also make sure to include an operating system and instructions in print on how to use the devices in the future.

Great idea, but if civilization is having a meltdown future generations may not have computers. I'd do the terrabyte thing, but throw some tree books in there for good measure.

[Ahriman238]

For my part, I don't really have huge hard drives to hand, nor did I really think they could keep well. Might throw in my Kindle and charger, with an etching of a lighting bolt on the plug and a pictograph showing it's operation, because there are books on it I don't have in hardcopy and it won't take up much space. Somehow I doubt the archival longevity of it, but it's worth a shot.

After that, first tier goes to irreplaceable cultural treasures and the means to decode them. Towards the latter end, a dictionary in case future generations can read a little English but not most or all English. Actually, let's go for the rosetta stone and throw in my French-English and Spanish-English dictionaries, which should increase the odds of someone speaking some part of that, and maybe hopefully provide a springboard to translating other surviving works. Think there's a compact Arabic-English dictionary floating around the house, if I can find it, it won't take up much space.

For the first part, cultural treasures. In goes the Bible and Catechism of the Catholic Church (I'm Catholic, they're on my list of books to save. Deal with it.) plus the collected (sadly, abridged) works of Shakespeare, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and probably my translations of the Baghavad Gita, Analects of Confucius and the Tao te Ching. Descartes' Meditations cannot be lost to the world, it's the only absolute priority on my philosophy shelf. I'm a little more ambiguous on Plato's Republic, I found it dull and not all that inspiring, but it seems there are legions of people who disagree. Anyways, I'm pretty sure all of these will fit.

Throw in a chemistry book, a simplified physics book, a Boy Scout handbook for large amounts of practical information. For history I have a tiny book, more of a pamphlet, containing the Declaration, Constitution, some other writings including key Supreme Court opinions, and commentary. Throw in History of the World in Brief, which is relatively compact but contains a wealth of information including some practical diagrams of things like seed drills. If there's space, maybe Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe, for covering a great breadth of time in an easy-to-understand manner.

[Alyrium Denryle]

I need more information. Are they burning works of literature, history, and philosophy ONLY or are they also burning Science?

Because if they are burning Science, that will modify my choices.

[Ahriman238]

I need more information. Are they burning works of literature, history, and philosophy ONLY or are they also burning Science?

Because if they are burning Science, that will modify my choices.

I first thought of this as literature, art, history and the general humantities catalog, but now I'm curious. Sure, they're burning science books.

[Kuja]

I need more information. Are they burning works of literature, history, and philosophy ONLY or are they also burning Science?

Because if they are burning Science, that will modify my choices.

I first thought of this as literature, art, history and the general humantities catalog, but now I'm curious. Sure, they're burning science books.

In that case I'm not sure saving a handful of books and flash drives is going to be worth anything, because if the vast majority of civilization has decided it's time to burn everything from history to any science more advanced than basic math...well, we're screwed. The amount of data that's going to be lost from the net is going to be insane, but it's going to get unutterably worse in a few years when we lack the materials to train newcomers in a vast swath of professions from art history to aerodynamic engineering. But the worst part of all is that something terrible must be going on in the minds of man if this is the new commonplace attitude. Is humanity even worth saving at that point - a few tiny handfuls out of the whole of the race?

[bilateralrope]

But the worst part of all is that something terrible must be going on in the minds of man if this is the new commonplace attitude. Is humanity even worth saving at that point - a few tiny handfuls out of the whole of the race?

I see two possibilities:
- It does not affect the entire world. Just part of it. Meaning my priority is to get out of there to somewhere sane.
- It affects everyone. Which means I'm also probably affected.

[Darmalus]

I first thought of this as literature, art, history and the general humantities catalog, but now I'm curious. Sure, they're burning science books.

Screw the books, flee the country ASAP.

If this is world wide, then nothing in that strongbox matters. This is the end.

[Lagmonster]

This scenario, as put, leaves far too many questions unanswered.

As intended, if you just want to know what books I consider the most valuable to a society without the written word, I'd list off a handful of the more generic works on farming and medicine, a technical dictionary, and a primer book on learning English. Why? Health is a primary pillar of civilization. If you're wiping the slate, good knowledge of agriculture and medicine is a big leg up.

As written, with hostile squads of luddites patrolling the decaying streets until they collapse from disease, I don't think it matters - nothing I could preserve would mean shit. I'm better off teaching as many friendly people as I can reach what I know about essential medicine, agriculture, science, etc. and hope it sticks.

Now, let's say you altered the scenario: At the stroke of 12, by magical fiat, every single human on earth except you voluntarily destroys every piece of recorded information they themselves are in immediate possession of, turns SuperAmish, and declares taboo all post-industrial tech. If that were the case, I'll bet I could save a shitload more than a box full of useful information, although what I could DO with it I have no goddamn idea.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

It's also important to know: are you the only one? Can you reasonably expect that people in every country will do what you do, or it's up to you alone to choose some (I assume literary) works from the entirety of humanity?

I feel deeply troubled by the latter option because, you know... literature is culture. By not including, say, any works in Hindi you are silencing thousands of years of culture even if that isn't your intent. By putting in only works from the western canon, you write off anyone who isn't a white Christian male. Translated works are not a solution, either; a translated work uses a language it wasn't originally written in, to address an audience it wasn't meant to, and is thus altered in the process.

In fact, in such a situation, I'd choose nothing. I'd rather let any future cultures grow and express themselves as they see fit than just silence any and all peoples whose language I don't understand or whose culture I don't know of.

Now, if I can count on more people to do it, the choice is easier. I'd select various important works in my own language, trying to put them in chronological order. My concern would be to show the linguistic progression of my language and the issues its speakers were struggling with. Other people can simply do the same with their own languages and cultures.

[Ahriman238]

It's also important to know: are you the only one? Can you reasonably expect that people in every country will do what you do, or it's up to you alone to choose some (I assume literary) works from the entirety of humanity?

I feel deeply troubled by the latter option because, you know... literature is culture. By not including, say, any works in Hindi you are silencing thousands of years of culture even if that isn't your intent. By putting in only works from the western canon, you write off anyone who isn't a white Christian male. Translated works are not a solution, either; a translated work uses a language it wasn't originally written in, to address an audience it wasn't meant to, and is thus altered in the process.

In fact, in such a situation, I'd choose nothing. I'd rather let any future cultures grow and express themselves as they see fit than just silence any and all peoples whose language I don't understand or whose culture I don't know of.

Now, if I can count on more people to do it, the choice is easier. I'd select various important works in my own language, trying to put them in chronological order. My concern would be to show the linguistic progression of my language and the issues its speakers were struggling with. Other people can simply do the same with their own languages and cultures.

I'm just going with what I have at hand or can easily acquire in one night. Original Chinese and Hindi texts don't really make the list, because I have no way to read them and thus little use for them at present. It's also debatable how useful it would be to include a number of works in many languages with no common elements to even serve as a basis for translation.

You can and should hope that others will try and preserve the history, culture and science of our era, maybe even expect that will be others. But at the end of the day, you can't know that, nor can you even attempt coordinate with anyone else planning criminal acts of preservation without jeopardizing your own time capsule. This is just you, in that situation, with limited knowledge doing whatever good you can.