The Knowledge: How to Rebuild our World from Scratch

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The earlier chapters do deal with scavenging and making the most of what’s been left behind. It also points out these things won’t last forever and why the country is a better bet than urban areas in the long term. With easy access to forests and the sea, where I live right now isn’t too bad a location if the worst happens! The book is apolitical. Its focus is the technology. If you need advice on how to hang on to your post-apocalyptic fiefdom, consult Machiavelli, Sun Tzu and other experts in such matters. Oh, it doesn’t cover killing zombies either. Imagina que desapareciera de golpe gran parte de la sociedad que te rodea, o que hubiera una guerra y te vieras solo... ¿serías capaz de sobrevivir? Al principio tendrías los supermercados llenos (ojo, sin electricidad) y farmacias a tu disposición pero, ¿sabrías qué alimentos o medicinas consumir? And what is that key survival move? Simple. As soon as you can, grab the guns and organise in war bands to protect your own and control territory. Disturbingly, the progress implied in the book is also going to require cheap slave labour. There are no nice liberal solutions to apocalypse.

Similarly, although a trifle dull except to techno-nerds, the run-through of all the basic technologies that underpin civilisation and which will require re-creation to rebuild it is informative and reasonable even if it is clear that we are talking about centuries of labour. The three ring binder format is not only widely established but it allows tailoring to one’s individual interests and needs. It is extensible as new information becomes available. It can organize one’s own notes and sheets. It can be short-listed in time of flight. The binders themselves are available in a number of rugged designs. About: The London Knowledge School is an extremely encouraging, friendly, welcoming, inclusive school to learn the Knowledge of London. We are based in Grays, Essex near the A13 and M25.Suburban (yellow badge) - Drivers can ply for hire in one of the nine sectors in the suburbs of the Greater London Authority area About: WizAnn Knowledge school offers classes, apps and study materials at all levels. We provide quiet study facilities for all levels in a modern,clean environment. Our introductory seminar for beginners is available on YouTube. What Lewis offers isn't a complete set of instructions (but some methods are described in great detail), but rather an overview of differing technologies such as agriculture, food preservation, basic and advanced chemistry, communications and more with specific methods and examples of the history of certain technologies and how to reboot these technologies from scratch. And Lewis admits that reproducing the historical progression of science and technology is not the most efficient reboot scenario, and that just having certain knowledge can hopefully leapfrog past certain stages and methods. He even suggests that several technologies that were adopted were inferior to abandoned competitors in hindsight and that a new civilisation should take advantage of this hindsight.

El siguiente capítulo es sobre medicina. El peligro más relevante en un mundo postapocalíptico es la infección, por lo que seguirá siendo importante lavarse las manos. Para el cólera, el tratamiento es evitar la deshidratación, por lo que hay que beber mucha agua. Habrá que inventar el forceps, para ayudar a dar a luz. El estetoscopio, y ya para nota los rayos x. Si hay que hacer cirugía, las tres As: anatomía, asepsia, anestesia. Por último explica como hacer penicilina. No sabía que era tan laborioso. There is a book to be written not for the future (as this one purports to be) but for the present which describes exactly what would happen under various apocalyptic scenarios to the species using the insights of the social sciences and humanities alongside the history of technology.

The Knowledge Team

A medida que vamos repasando disciplinas la cosa se complica y el poder replicar lo que explica el autor resulta más complejo. Empezamos con la agricultura, una práctica tremendamente artificial y hambrienta de nitrógeno, fósforo y potasio, así como pesticidas. Hay que volver a la agricultura tradicional. Nos explica la composición del suelo: arena, limo y arcilla en proporciones ideales 40/40/20. Habrá que reinventar el arado, una máquina para dar la vuelta al suelo; la grada, para aplanar; la sembradora. Plantar las tres principales: maíz, arroz y trigo. Y ya después cebada, sorgo, mijo, avena y centeno. Para evitar el barbecho, plantar leguminosas: guisantes, alubias, trébol, alfalfa, lentejas, soja y cacahuetes. Es lo que se llama el sistema Norfolk: Leguminosas, trigo, tubérculos y cebada. Los tubérculos nos ayudarán a alimentar el ganado, que nos dará estiércol y carne. El estiércol humano hay que pasteurizarlo a más de 65 grados. Y para obtener fosfatos: harina de huesos y ácido sulfúrico para dar fosfatos. Fortunately, much thought and effort has already gone into this kind of summary for students, professionals and hobbyists. Together, they comprise a goldmine of supplemental information to that presented in The Knowledge.

I found the agricultural, medical and chemistry bits the most fascinating and accessible, based on my previous knowledge. We’ve already got some sourdough starter and homemade cider in the corner of the room, so we’re ahead in our preparations, at least when it comes to yeast. Some of the engineering bits went a bit over my head. In practical terms, it gives only a brief overview of what you’d need to know, if you have no prior knowledge you would struggle to do all the things in the book. Also, these peaceful souls will spend their time loving animals, not hunting and eating them. In one place, Dartnell grudgingly admits that rebuilding medicine “may also call for disagreeable practices like animal testing.” I’m pretty sure the inhabitants of post-apocalyptic Earth won’t be much concerned with animal welfare, other than preparatory to their consumption. In considering this, I was impressed by the scale of the task. The task needs to be scaled in both time and space. The population density of the UK is currently about 0.0037 km2 per person. After the catastrophe described (but unspecified), the density would change to 24.3 km2 per person - roughly a box of 5 km by 5 km per person. There is a step whereby the survivors find each other and form a viable small community before a combination of hunger and thirst starts to impose themselves on the new death rate. This is the ” golden age ” . It has been waited for the human consciousnesses to reach, a certain consciousness level for this to be able to be applied to our planet. En el apartado de transporte, la cosa es un poco ciencia ficción cuando anima a construir un motor de explosión o incluso una máquina de vapor . Habrá que reinventar el yugo para el transporte con animales.

Using a scooter

You will then attend a series of one-to-one oral "appearances" with an examiner. Each appearance usually consists of four questions about the shortest route between any two points in London. An appearance takes about 20 minutes, and you'll get a score from A-D. For this reason, humanity which has reached a certain level of consciousness is projecting a rendered directly by the reality of unified humanity, to all ofthe universal totalities (including our planet). It is, in fact, a not-so-occult polemic. It contains absolutely nothing of the other half of what we would have to know to control our situation after the breakdown of our system - individual psychology, social psychology, the lessons of history, anthropology and 'organisation'. In short if this was to be the book I was left with in the apocalypse I would desperately hope for a whole library of practical advice also, as at best I would use The Knowledge as a reference for what to start looking into.

El ejercicio mental parte de la premisa de que quedamos unas 10.000 personas vivas tras una pandemia, con el planeta básicamente como está ahora, tipo "Soy Leyenda". La catástrofe nuclear no nos permite arrancar de nuevo. Como se ve en tiempos de cuarentena, lo primero que llama la atención es cómo la naturaleza reclama su sitio y se abre camino. Habría muchos incendios, especialmente en ciudades. A medio plazo habrá que huir de ellas, no serán seguras. Demasiado gas almacenado, explosiones. Hay que ir al campo, y mejor hacia la costa. As a book of general knowledge with an intriguing take, I actually enjoyed it. As long as I cast aside a nagging feeling that if the end of the world were to strike, I would be very doomed, I found trawling through The Knowledge to be a lot of fun. Part of the reason that I liked the book but wouldn’t want it as a doomsday guide, is that Dartnell couldn’t seem to resist delving into the history of technological development which while relevant from a general interest point of view, I wouldn’t be keen to trawl in the disaster scenario. The time has come for, humanity which has gained the light of consciousness from micro to macro, walking on the paths of reincarnation, to be told all the humanity who gathers on the one world plat-orm to be established in the future; unite underthe roof of a one world state. I think that I didn't really get past the objection of why one would want to rebuild the UK to a standard of technology broadly similar to that of today. Surely a catastrophe such as that would present an opportunity to make a fresh start? If we could rebuild our civilisation, would we want to reignite naked consumerism? Would we pass the chance of replacing maximisation with enoughness? Would we want to avoid the mistakes we made the first time around? I remain very unconvinced by the central premise that a recovering society would be foolish enough to follow the path that we have created for ourselves.

The footnotes throughout the book are consistently very interesting. I think any writer interested in world building would find the book very useful.