= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
RobinZ comments on Open Thread, August 2010 - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (676)
Suppose you know from good sources that there is going to be a huge catastrophe in the very near future, which will result in the near-extermination of humanity (but the natural environment will recover more easily). You and a small group of ordinary men and women will have to restart from scratch.
You have a limited time to compile a compendium of knowledge to preserve for the new era. What is the most important knowledge to preserve?
I am humbled by how poorly my own personal knowledge would fare.
In rough order of addition to the corpus of knowledge:
The scientific method.
Basic survival skills (e.g. navigation).
Edit: Basic agriculture (e.g. animal husbandry, crop cultivation).
Calculus.
Classical mechanics.
Basic chemistry.
Basic medicine.
Basic political science.
Basic sanitation!
For survival skills, I'd suggest buying this one before the disaster, while there's still internet.
Yes! Insert sanitation between 3 and 4, and insert construction (e.g. whittling, carpentry, metal casting) between sanitation and 3.