Talk:Rebuilding Civilization from Scratch
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This wikibook is kind of a how-to for restoring civilization from scratch.
You might read Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Tunnel in the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein and possibly Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle for ideas and/or inspiration.
Basicly, I created this book to flesh out a thought experiment of mine (what happens if you drop a plane full of people on an island with no chance of return), and decided to open it up to the public in a general sense ((re)building civilization in any remote location). -DavesTA 12:56, 1 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Really rebuilding civilization
I believe the object of the document should be to list all steps necessary to actually rebuild civilization from scratch. All technologies necessary and the foundation technologies necessary for rebuilding civilization to the current level need to be included or referenced.
When the document is completed, a group of people should be able to be dropped into the desert or a habitable wilderness and be able to create a functioning high-tech civilization using materials at hand.
The founding technologies of survival (how to start a fire, how to kill animals for food, how to identify edible plants, how to build a shelter, how to purify water) should form the first sections. Next should come the sections describing the next level of technology and how to create the tools to build it, from iron all the way to microchips. The sum total of all human knowledge needs to be collected into one place which is what Wikipedia is all about. There should of course be a discussion of the various forms of human government and which are more effective during each technological phase, and the process by which the next phase can be implemented.
The text should ultimately include video files demonstrating how to perform various useful acts.
The most important aspect would be the "how to safeguard the information in this document" along with various methods. Perhaps a priesthood (like the "technomages" in Babylon 5) should be created to protect and copy the document, and ensure that it survives any nuclear or other catastrophe that befalls the human race.
This is a topic I have thought about for years. How could civilization quickly recover from any massive catastrophe in a short period of time without being reset back to the stone age? Think of this article as a disaster recovery document.
Methods of preserving the document should also be considered: hard copy, CD/DVD, a video player embedded in a stone monolith ala 2001 (my favorite ;-) etc.
-jjb
[edit] Golf Course?
Wouldn't that imply: "Oh, we're stranded and we're playing golf, then we've 'planned' to be stranded for an extended amount of time?" That might raise hopelessness for some people, projects that should be done while stranded should be projects that is useful to the survival of the group (or at least something that looks useful).
Week long trips should be avoided to avoid exhaustion and wounds when medical treatments is a scarce resource, unless there is something that needs immediate investigation or there is a hope that something that is helpful could be found on the exploration. In short, blind exploration is a no-no, the exploration should be done with a clear goal (like exploration to find the other side of the island, which might be inhabited by tribes, after seeing some evidence that there might be other human civilization nearby other than the group).
- Well, technically, this is about rebuilding civilization. I'm not nit-picking, because I don't care all that much, but a golf course doesn't seem all that productive either. As for long trips, I can see your point. Would short, day-long trips be acceptable, for the purpose of exploration or finding new sources of food/water/supplies? -DavesTA 14:14, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Are you cereal?
Okay let me get this down.
1. Make sure everyone is safe.
2. A head count, see step 1.
3. Get a person to take all the physical risk, see step 1.
4. Magically conjure a biologist that also hunts and is a survival expert, but don't put them in charge.
5. Also conjure the Professor. Where's my coconut powered jetpack?
6. Look around.
7. Set up camp.
8. Organize your stuff, see step 7.
9. See step 6.
10. BUILD A GOLF COURSE.
11. See step 7.
12. Make a government.
Wow from pre-stone age to modern civilization in 8, or 12 steps either one. Thank god we have Les Stroud and The Professor fron Gilligan's island here with us. We needed more golf partners.
My god. No survival information. Nothing on woodworking, fire building, shelters, hunting, traping, foraging wild edibles. No technical advancement, no pottery, no skinning, no weaving, no mining (open pit of course). Not even an honorable mention about how easy it is to make a van de graaf generator. Its civilization rebuilt though, you can tell because we have a golf course, community center, and an idiot is in charge.
