The title is a bit over dramatic but, per the title, if you could contribute with one piece of knowledge to a book that every single individual should learn from in order to kickstart a civilization, what would be yours?

My personal choice would be the process of soap making, from scratch.

  • trafguy@midwest.socialEnglish
    10·
    1 year ago
    • Crafting bows to hunt. Wood selection, shaping, tillering, natural bowstring materials.
    • Some edible wild plants
    • Some basic farming knowledge
    • Some construction/shelter repair techniques
    • Algebra and concepts of calculus, and why they’re useful
    • How to preserve foods
    • Basic concepts of electricity’s importance and how to make it, but someone would need to explain how to go from raw material to a functional wire, find some rare earth magnets, and figure out how to make LEDs or something else worth using the electricity for.
    • The scientific method
    • Concepts of how to engineer/design a solution to a problem
    • Troubleshooting techniques
    • Some basic concepts of boat stability and construction
    • Some concepts of modern psychology
    • Concepts of critical thinking and rejection of groupthink
    • Basic physics. Loose explanations of kinematic equations, gravity, friction, pendulums, air resistance, aerodynamics, basic concepts of rocketry and flight/parachutes/gliders
    • Evaporative cooling? I could describe the concepts of modern air conditioning, but that doesn’t seem useful yet.
    • I could probably work out how a windmill works, how to make a wagon, how to purify water, how to make water-tight storage.
    • Germ Theory
    • The Paradox of Tolerance
    • How pasteurization works
    • Fermentation, concepts of distillation
    • Basic oral hygiene? Habits of at least rinsing sugar out of your mouth afterwards, if brushes aren’t available.
    • Use of alcohol and heat as antiseptics. Suggestion to use honey in a pinch
    • Basic concepts of how magnifying lenses work and why they’re important
      • trafguy@midwest.socialEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, that would be crucial too. Antibioitics and the risks of antibiotic resistance need to be included. But to create and purify effective antibiotics, you also need to start with the scientific method, then branch into chemistry, biology, etc. Glassware and procedures to minimize contamination would be important to effectively extract helpful ingredients from potentially harmful molds/other sources.

        Depending on the starting scenario, it might be possible to skip much of that at first if we had leftover supplies from a prior civilization. If this site is to be believed, it sounds like making penicillin at home is quite a process, but doable if you’re able to get the right supplies. I don’t see any efficient pathway from here to there if we had to start from zero though.