The Encyclopedia Foundation got started in 02008 with the purchase of one house. Condemned. We fixed it first, before buying a second one. Why? Obviously so that if we ran out of money, we’d still at least have one working house. No sense worrying about a second house till the first one was done. Not if safety, security and stability are our watchwords. And they are.
Likewise our approach to preserving the knowledge of mankind. What if we run out of money? What if we are interrupted by a disaster that arrives sooner than expected?
We therefore made the determination that we would preserve one single plate of knowledge first, such that if that was all we ever did, it would serve as better than nothing. Then, after that was safely done, we would focus on additional knowledge, but such that it would only be an expansion of the first plate.
The first plate will have 20 volumes of children’s textbooks, including the six volume McGuffey Reader set for that time period (early 20th century, pre-1911) The 32 volume set of the 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911). The 51 volume set of the Harvard Classics (1910). The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (17th century). And the King James Version of the Holy Bible (17th century).
These total 105 books of varying sizes. You could picture it as a basic 100 volumes, but it is not the “100 books to reboot civilization” described in another article.
It’s something that we are hoping can be micro-engraved on one metal page. The Encyclopedia Foundation strongly believes that if your culture at any level had that one plate, that there would be some hope for rebuilding, and having a storehouse of mankind’s cultural, literary and historical treasures.
You would, after all, be able to read the educational books of that early 20th century time (the McGuffey’s Readers), you’d have the complete reference work of that time (the Encyclopedia Britannica), you’d have what then Harvard President Dr. Eliot said would give someone the equivalent of a liberal arts degree from the Harvard University of that time (the Harvard Classics), AND, you’d have the two most popular books to own at that time – Shakespeare and the Bible.
Having that plate would make you in every way conceivable a well educated man of 1911. With even a few “advanced” ideas that could be gleaned by the more modern children’s textbooks on the sciences. And don’t discount the “well educated man of 1911”. Humanity was at the top of it’s game, then, and it’s those guys who then started us on all that we have – and take for granted – today.
After that first plate, we will have that as a safe base. If we did nothing else, that would have achieved and fulfilled our mission statement.
But we will then start on a second plate. And that one will have the works described in “100 books to reboot civilization” described elsewhere, minus that which was already included on the first plate.
1. 3 books on measurements and scientific data: The Machinists Handbook. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. The Handbook of Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry.
2. 9 books on Medicine: A general book on medical theory. A general book on surgical procedures. A general book on the history of Medical Science. “Gray’s Anatomy”, “Obstetrics and Gynecology” by Beckman, “Where there is no Doctor” by David Werner, “Where there is no Dentist” by Murray Dickson. “Diseases of Women” and “Pediatrics”.
3. 24 books on general information and mathematics. “Five Acres and Independence”, the “Foxfire Series” (There are 12 of those). A book each on Carpentry, Masonry and Bricklaying, Blacksmithing, Plumbing, Sewer Systems, and Electricity. Basic Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Trigonometry.
4. 5 books on guns, ammo, gunpowder making, explosives, and survival. The U.S. Army guides are good for some of these.
5. 3 books on how states can survive: “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “On War” by von Clausewitz, “Guerrilla Warfare” by Mao Tse-Tung.
6. 2 books to help leaders lead and followers keep watch: “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. “The Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine.
That’s 46 more volumes. If you noticed some differences – like listing “Atlas Shrugged” instead of “The Wealth of Nations” it is because the Harvard Classics contain “The Wealth of Nations” in their 51 book set. And the Harvard Classics contain “The Prince” so that’s not on this specific list.
And yet to the extent that we can put about 100 books on one metal page, in a fashion that is appropriate to be read without an enormous electron microscope, we will fill out that list with another fifty four volumes. Such as several volumes on farming, agriculture, agronomy and Norman Borlaug’s works!
And that will be plate two. We may even make one plate – eventually – that has the plate covered on either side, so that all that – 200 volumes! – will be on one plate!
However, that said, it may be that for reasons of practicality that we have to just have fifty volumes per plate. In which case our first plate would actually be two plates, and those 46 volumes would make up Plate Three.
Now, however that works out – one double-sided plate, two plates of 100 or three plates of 50, that will be another stopping point. Such as if we had those, and could do no more, then that would well serve to reboot civilization and preserve a lot of mankind’s cultural heritage.
As we believe we’ll continue, then we’ll have more plates on specialized topics. Philosophy. Electronics. Computers. Rocketry and Space Travel. And more literature. Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Clemens, Isaac Asimov.
But picture our excitement at the thought of being able to get 100 volumes on a side and thus have two hundred volumes on a single plate! What a treasure such a plate would be!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Plain list of 100 books for re-booting civlization
The Encyclopedia Foundation presents this plain list of what 100 books we feel would best "reboot" civilization. Use this list as you will for any long term project you have. An explanation of this can be found in the previous article called "Re-booting Civilization".
1. 20 textbooks for educating children K-12, we recommend six volumes be the McGuffey Readers, the rest High School Texts on History, Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology.
2. 32 volumes of The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The totality of knowledge of mankind up to 1911.
3. 3 books on measurements and scientific data: The Machinists Handbook. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. The Handbook of Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry.
4. 9 books on Medicine: A general book on medical theory. A general book on surgical procedures. A general book on the history of Medical Science. “Gray’s Anatomy”, “Obstetrics and Gynecology” by Beckman, “Where there is no Doctor” by David Werner, “Where there is no Dentist” by Murray Dickson. “Diseases of Women” and “Pediatrics”.
5. 24 books on general information and mathematics. “Five Acres and Independence”, the “Foxfire Series” (There are 12 of those). A book each on Carpentry, Masonry and Bricklaying, Blacksmithing, Plumbing, Sewer Systems, and Electricity. Basic Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Trigonometry.
6. 5 books on guns, ammo, gunpowder making, explosives, and survival. The U.S. Army guides are good for some of these.
7. 4 books on how states can survive: “The Prince” by Machiavelli, “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “On War” by von Clausewitz, “Guerrilla Warfare” by Mao Tse-Tung.
8. 2 books to help leaders lead: “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. “The Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine.
9. 1 King James Version Bible.
1. 20 textbooks for educating children K-12, we recommend six volumes be the McGuffey Readers, the rest High School Texts on History, Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology.
2. 32 volumes of The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. The totality of knowledge of mankind up to 1911.
3. 3 books on measurements and scientific data: The Machinists Handbook. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. The Handbook of Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry.
4. 9 books on Medicine: A general book on medical theory. A general book on surgical procedures. A general book on the history of Medical Science. “Gray’s Anatomy”, “Obstetrics and Gynecology” by Beckman, “Where there is no Doctor” by David Werner, “Where there is no Dentist” by Murray Dickson. “Diseases of Women” and “Pediatrics”.
5. 24 books on general information and mathematics. “Five Acres and Independence”, the “Foxfire Series” (There are 12 of those). A book each on Carpentry, Masonry and Bricklaying, Blacksmithing, Plumbing, Sewer Systems, and Electricity. Basic Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Trigonometry.
6. 5 books on guns, ammo, gunpowder making, explosives, and survival. The U.S. Army guides are good for some of these.
7. 4 books on how states can survive: “The Prince” by Machiavelli, “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “On War” by von Clausewitz, “Guerrilla Warfare” by Mao Tse-Tung.
8. 2 books to help leaders lead: “Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. “The Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine.
9. 1 King James Version Bible.
Re-booting Civilization
The Encyclopedia Foundation welcomes “competition”. We admire the Long Now Foundation. We also admire a site we came across through the Long Now’s website, it is an article from a site called “The Technium”.
They are apparently envisioning a “Library of Utility” that would be like a “seed bank”, but with books, to do a “reboot” of civilization. Not literature and culture, so much as science and technology.
They are thinking along the lines of ten thousand books saved for ten thousand years. A commendable goal.
However, it made us wonder how many books it would actually take. 10,000 seems a bit high to us. We have good reason to wonder about this. If each book can only last by being stored on metal plates, then given the cost of that, the fewer the better. And better to have 100 copies around the world of 100 good books, then 100 good books and 9,900 not so needful ones. Given that the cost would be the same.
Can it be done? Can civilization be “rebooted” in 100 books? A qualified “yes”. We feel that it could be, but that 1,000 would give one more room to be sure.
How do we come to that conclusion? The Encyclopedia Foundation thinks of the growth of knowledge as an inverted pyramid. There is one original great idea, then things grow from that, like a tree. The trunk of Science has thick branches of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology. Those thick branches split as well, so that from the thick branch of Biology it splits into everything from Anatomy to Zoology.
Now, here’s the thing. Each of the final “little braches” are very important – such as, for example, Automotive Design, a subset of the subject of Internal Combustion Engines, a subset of Machines, a subset of Physics, a subset of Science.
It can be readily seen that if someone has the books on Internal Combustion Engines, they as a society will derive – eventually – all they need to know about Automotive Design. We could also say that if they had the book on “Machines” in general, with but a passing reference to Internal Combustion Engines, that they could (though it would take longer) derive Automotive Design.
Taking it to the extreme, though, if they only had the books on the Scientific Method, with but a sentence’s worth of description for each marvel that Science could produce (“Rigorous application of mechanical principles is what led to the ability to mass produce automobiles.”) we can see that while it puts them on the road to it, that the destination is far too far away to be of much use.
So it is important to think about which are the key branching points. You don’t want to have to store 10,000 or even 100,000 twigs. But you don’t just want one tree stump book of “The Scientific Method” and call it good, either.
Another thing that must be taken into account is the populace. A civilization re-boot implies a massive disaster. It’s not actually a disaster on a civilization wrecking scale unless a thing that is called a “die back” takes place, wherein the population exceeds the capacity of the resources at hand to feed them, and thus dies off until a new equilibrium is reached at a drastically reduced level.
In other words, there won’t be 6.5 billion people when civilization collapses, and the biggest loss in population of all will be from the industrialized technology-dependent nations. You know, where we all know that meat comes from the back of the store and vegetables are off to one side in the store. Unlike places on Earth where they still farm for a living, the United States has less than 3 percent of its population familiar with that. And they depend on half a million dollar combines and plentiful fuel.
It might be said, “But if there’s a billion people left, and they have the books, so what?”
Well, it gets into the field of what’s called the “Diffusion of Innovations”. There is a good Wikipedia article on the subject. But in short, the billion aren’t all standing around the library waiting for the new idea.
How an idea spreads, and thus “reboots” civilization depends on who discovers the new idea – a tribal outcast or the Chief’s son? It depends on how fast communications are. Do they have heliographs and fast horse riders and are part of a network of communities? Or is their tribe of 1,000 survivors in a world of a scattered billion completely cut off?
Will they accept the idea, to the extent that they as a social organization will work towards using it? Can they even afford to? One man cannot build a car, even with a book and tools. And nor can the community afford to help, not when they work 12 hours a day in the fields.
There is a concept in this of “relative advantage” that is important. If the machines are rusted out hulks, or radioactive slag, and a farming community of 1,000 comes across the books, what will it do for them?
As they are back to horse drawn carts, we might imagine that they are eager for a book on Automotive Design. But we’re sorry to say that they would not be. They are 1,000 people scratching a living at farming, they don’t have enough workers to mine the metal to make a single part of that car! But they’d sure be interested in seeing an article about how you can make buggy rides less bumpy with the appropriate wooden suspension system that can be carved out by the elderly non-farmers in a week.
This is why the Encyclopedia Foundation wants a “reboot”, but only to early 20th century levels. At least sophisticated horse drawn carriages are possible for primitives to make. And if they benefit by that idea, they’ll be more likely to preserve those plates and make such use of them as they can later. From time to time. The more they use it to make incremental advances, the more time they’ll have to make use of the next one. We must regard them as third worlders. We wish to give them planes, but they really need a good pot to boil soup in. One is more glamorous, the other more useful. A society of pot and pan owners, with the machine culture that implies, will get to the plane making. But a plane won’t get them to pots and pans. Nor do they have any motivation at all for wishing a plane.
But the more such small advances as pots and pans help them thrive and grow, the more population they will have – and that’s important. It’s important because the more people you have, the more geniuses you have. Geniuses, by loose standards, make up 2% of the population. By stricter standards then is found on “Free IQ Tests” online, they make up less than one percent of the population. Let us say 1% even, but know that is too high.
In the world as it is, 6.5 billion people have the benefit of 65 million geniuses creating, discovering and inventing for them. If a die back occurs, and there are only 1 billion people left, then you only have 10,000,000. And sad to say, many of the geniuses (Like wheelchair bound Stephen Hawking) may be more likely to die in a disaster than Billy Bubba who has a truck farm and junkyard and Elijah Amishman who never noticed the collapse.
And even if all ten million lived, they are scattered. The hypothetical farming community of 1,000 could only be said to have 10 geniuses tops. And the other bad thing? Geniuses are specialized. The 10 that fate hands you are likely to be – as elsewhere – musicologists, computer science gurus, experts on baseball stats, and a million other “useless” fields. They are not, contrary to movies, types that can just look at equations and say, “Ahh, so, ve haff the makings uff civilization here!” (Nor do they really all speak “movie German”!)
Inventions come from one genius having an idea, and even mapping out the broad strokes. Then our mighty industrial civilization, driven by a billion people’s desire for more toys and a million people’s desire for more money and more status in making those toys, has armies of lesser lights fill in the gaps of the idea. Making it practical. Then we’ve the larger armies of those who get it produced one part at a time all over Earth. It’s a collective effort, and we are at the point where we do it effortlessly. You’d think that when a guy invents intermittent wipers that it’s him who is installing them on your car after making it in his garage personally. Not a chance. It is a million man effort each time – but we have not only the 65,000,000 geniuses, but the 6,435,000,000 workers to carry the idea to completion!
In other words, there is not a chance for a post-collapse civilization to find those books and – BAM – reboot to monorails, supersonic transports and orbiting comsats.
Thus the Encyclopedia Foundation regards 1911 as the “trunk and branches” needful to let humanity rediscover all else. It is the highest level of tech that is of remotely possible interest to an uneducated and impoverished community.
Given that, our choice of the 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica makes more sense to people. It has remarkable benefits and in only 32 volumes! It has articles on plenty of tech of the fancy kind most think of – planes, trains and automobiles – but it also has all the practical arts that would help give ideas and aid to those living at the level the Amish do.
It is both the “trunk and branches” with the start of some of the smaller branches. Just the start. But if they get back to the level of 1911, then obviously it will take them only 100 years to get to where we are. As before they can get back to that level, the population will have had to grow. With the books, you might not need the geniuses as much, but you sure need the workers for mass production so as to make stuff affordable, and thus be able to “diffuse” throughout the world.
Besides those 32 volumes, what other books to help “reboot”? You would need children’s educational books, Kindergarten through 12th grade, so that they could make sense of what they read in the Britannica. McGuffey’s Readers were the standard for that time period, and there were six of them. Add in some high school text books on Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology. Let us say that instructional texts, including McGuffey’s, works out to 20 volumes. That puts us up to 52 volumes.
You aren’t going to make them have to refigure out every measurement, are you? Include the Machinist’s Handbook. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. The Handbook of Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry. That’s three more, or 55 total.
What about medicine? The Encyclopedia Foundation cannot emphasize enough how important a large population is for there to be any innovations. You will want a copy of Gray’s Anatomy. Still the standard. “Obstetrics and Gynecology” by Beckman. “Where there is no Doctor” by David Werner and “Where there is no Dentist” by Murray Dickson. “Diseases of Women”, “Pediatrics”. Those are medical texts. You can often find them in used stores. We’re up to 61 volumes now, but the more children are born and grow up the better. More minds. More hands.
“Five Acres and Independence” and the “Foxfire Series” (12 volumes) This brings us up to 74 volumes now, but the survivors must know how to be independent 19th century level farmers without fuel powered machinery.
The Encyclopedia Foundation expresses no preference as to what specific titles, but would wish for texts on Carpentry, Masonry and Bricklaying, Blacksmithing, Plumbing, Sewer Systems, and Electricity. Also texts on Basic Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Trigonometry. Now we’re at 85.
Have a general book on Medical Theory. A general overview about how Anatomy, Anesthesia and Antisepsis are the basis of modern surgery. And the germ theory of disease is the basis of modern medicine. Have a book on Surgical procedures, such as a doctor would have. For in case anyone has an appendicitis. And find a book on making Ether. That’s three more volumes.
Have a book or books on all aspects of guns. And ammo making and gunpowder making. We make no judgments, but know that any who survive will need to stay alive to benefit from the books. In this unpleasant “section” a book on explosives would be appropriate. The U.S. Army has some manuals on surviving in hostile territory and improvised explosives. We believe this section can be done in five volumes. That’s 93 total.
You will also need “The Prince” by Machiavelli, “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “On War” by von Clausewitz, “Guerrilla Warfare” by Mao Tse-Tung. If you don’t know why, or don’t agree, then you don’t understand what a collapse of civilization means, or that a “reboot” will not be conducted peaceably. Civilizations are formed by persuading, usually forcibly, a diverse group of people to come under the authority of one agency. Having done so, they may work and create in relative peace within the protected territory, being peaceably “robbed” a little by their leaders so as to not be utterly destroyed by looters elsewhere.
“Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. “The Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine. This will help those “leaders” know that the easier they are on their people, the more taxes they can get from them. 90% of a peasant’s income is nothing compared to 20% of an American worker’s income. And the freer the peoples, the less chance of having to put down a revolt.
Finally, the KJV Bible. (King James Version) There are practical reasons for this book, as detailed in another article. The proverbs alone make it worthwhile. And as a civilizing influence on leaders and subjects alike, it is without peer, regardless as to popular historical revisionism.
We hear you. That’s 100, but it’s not enough! What about refrigeration and electronics and computers and history and, and, and…we agree. And blueprints for machines and tool and die making and so on. This is just if you had to do it in 100 books. It’s the trunk and a few thick branches, not the whole tree. It would grow, though.
Now, from this you can see that if you were to shoot for 1,000 books, you could greatly expand this. Besides adding many more subjects, you could expand on the currently listed subjects. And you could add the Harvard Classics, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, other religious holy books, history books, Greek and Roman writings, Euclid, Aristotle and so on.
Frankly, you could call out names all day, call out subjects all night, suggest idea after idea, and after we put them all in, we’d still be under a thousand.
We suggest then that for any civilization re-booting project that the 100 books listed above be acquired and preserved first. Then add to that. With the 100 as a base, the more you add the better, but if you run out of funds or will power, then what you have will serve the future well.
The books should have two copies of each of them. One for the public to access now, and one sealed up to be preserved for later. Books of paper store best at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, 40% humidity, no light, and a non-oxygen atmosphere. In other words, shut them into a nitrogen filled vault, weld that shut and store it under your basement with a good concrete casing to keep water away from it.
Or put them on metal plates like we’re going to. Because that list above is the stuff we were planning on having on the other metal plates. The first metal plate will have the 13th Edition, the Harvard Classics, the children’s texts, Shakespeare and the KJV Bible. Then the others, one at a time, as much as we can fit on each plate, as appropriate.
The first plate first. We believe that alone could be a viable “civilization re-boot”. It would certainly be better than nothing. But after we have that one plate as our base, we will expand to the rest of those 100 books mentioned, that will be Plate Two. (Perhaps more if we end up not fitting as many volumes per plate as we are picturing) And after we have those two to five plates as our new base, we will shoot for that 1,000.
We have time.
They are apparently envisioning a “Library of Utility” that would be like a “seed bank”, but with books, to do a “reboot” of civilization. Not literature and culture, so much as science and technology.
They are thinking along the lines of ten thousand books saved for ten thousand years. A commendable goal.
However, it made us wonder how many books it would actually take. 10,000 seems a bit high to us. We have good reason to wonder about this. If each book can only last by being stored on metal plates, then given the cost of that, the fewer the better. And better to have 100 copies around the world of 100 good books, then 100 good books and 9,900 not so needful ones. Given that the cost would be the same.
Can it be done? Can civilization be “rebooted” in 100 books? A qualified “yes”. We feel that it could be, but that 1,000 would give one more room to be sure.
How do we come to that conclusion? The Encyclopedia Foundation thinks of the growth of knowledge as an inverted pyramid. There is one original great idea, then things grow from that, like a tree. The trunk of Science has thick branches of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology. Those thick branches split as well, so that from the thick branch of Biology it splits into everything from Anatomy to Zoology.
Now, here’s the thing. Each of the final “little braches” are very important – such as, for example, Automotive Design, a subset of the subject of Internal Combustion Engines, a subset of Machines, a subset of Physics, a subset of Science.
It can be readily seen that if someone has the books on Internal Combustion Engines, they as a society will derive – eventually – all they need to know about Automotive Design. We could also say that if they had the book on “Machines” in general, with but a passing reference to Internal Combustion Engines, that they could (though it would take longer) derive Automotive Design.
Taking it to the extreme, though, if they only had the books on the Scientific Method, with but a sentence’s worth of description for each marvel that Science could produce (“Rigorous application of mechanical principles is what led to the ability to mass produce automobiles.”) we can see that while it puts them on the road to it, that the destination is far too far away to be of much use.
So it is important to think about which are the key branching points. You don’t want to have to store 10,000 or even 100,000 twigs. But you don’t just want one tree stump book of “The Scientific Method” and call it good, either.
Another thing that must be taken into account is the populace. A civilization re-boot implies a massive disaster. It’s not actually a disaster on a civilization wrecking scale unless a thing that is called a “die back” takes place, wherein the population exceeds the capacity of the resources at hand to feed them, and thus dies off until a new equilibrium is reached at a drastically reduced level.
In other words, there won’t be 6.5 billion people when civilization collapses, and the biggest loss in population of all will be from the industrialized technology-dependent nations. You know, where we all know that meat comes from the back of the store and vegetables are off to one side in the store. Unlike places on Earth where they still farm for a living, the United States has less than 3 percent of its population familiar with that. And they depend on half a million dollar combines and plentiful fuel.
It might be said, “But if there’s a billion people left, and they have the books, so what?”
Well, it gets into the field of what’s called the “Diffusion of Innovations”. There is a good Wikipedia article on the subject. But in short, the billion aren’t all standing around the library waiting for the new idea.
How an idea spreads, and thus “reboots” civilization depends on who discovers the new idea – a tribal outcast or the Chief’s son? It depends on how fast communications are. Do they have heliographs and fast horse riders and are part of a network of communities? Or is their tribe of 1,000 survivors in a world of a scattered billion completely cut off?
Will they accept the idea, to the extent that they as a social organization will work towards using it? Can they even afford to? One man cannot build a car, even with a book and tools. And nor can the community afford to help, not when they work 12 hours a day in the fields.
There is a concept in this of “relative advantage” that is important. If the machines are rusted out hulks, or radioactive slag, and a farming community of 1,000 comes across the books, what will it do for them?
As they are back to horse drawn carts, we might imagine that they are eager for a book on Automotive Design. But we’re sorry to say that they would not be. They are 1,000 people scratching a living at farming, they don’t have enough workers to mine the metal to make a single part of that car! But they’d sure be interested in seeing an article about how you can make buggy rides less bumpy with the appropriate wooden suspension system that can be carved out by the elderly non-farmers in a week.
This is why the Encyclopedia Foundation wants a “reboot”, but only to early 20th century levels. At least sophisticated horse drawn carriages are possible for primitives to make. And if they benefit by that idea, they’ll be more likely to preserve those plates and make such use of them as they can later. From time to time. The more they use it to make incremental advances, the more time they’ll have to make use of the next one. We must regard them as third worlders. We wish to give them planes, but they really need a good pot to boil soup in. One is more glamorous, the other more useful. A society of pot and pan owners, with the machine culture that implies, will get to the plane making. But a plane won’t get them to pots and pans. Nor do they have any motivation at all for wishing a plane.
But the more such small advances as pots and pans help them thrive and grow, the more population they will have – and that’s important. It’s important because the more people you have, the more geniuses you have. Geniuses, by loose standards, make up 2% of the population. By stricter standards then is found on “Free IQ Tests” online, they make up less than one percent of the population. Let us say 1% even, but know that is too high.
In the world as it is, 6.5 billion people have the benefit of 65 million geniuses creating, discovering and inventing for them. If a die back occurs, and there are only 1 billion people left, then you only have 10,000,000. And sad to say, many of the geniuses (Like wheelchair bound Stephen Hawking) may be more likely to die in a disaster than Billy Bubba who has a truck farm and junkyard and Elijah Amishman who never noticed the collapse.
And even if all ten million lived, they are scattered. The hypothetical farming community of 1,000 could only be said to have 10 geniuses tops. And the other bad thing? Geniuses are specialized. The 10 that fate hands you are likely to be – as elsewhere – musicologists, computer science gurus, experts on baseball stats, and a million other “useless” fields. They are not, contrary to movies, types that can just look at equations and say, “Ahh, so, ve haff the makings uff civilization here!” (Nor do they really all speak “movie German”!)
Inventions come from one genius having an idea, and even mapping out the broad strokes. Then our mighty industrial civilization, driven by a billion people’s desire for more toys and a million people’s desire for more money and more status in making those toys, has armies of lesser lights fill in the gaps of the idea. Making it practical. Then we’ve the larger armies of those who get it produced one part at a time all over Earth. It’s a collective effort, and we are at the point where we do it effortlessly. You’d think that when a guy invents intermittent wipers that it’s him who is installing them on your car after making it in his garage personally. Not a chance. It is a million man effort each time – but we have not only the 65,000,000 geniuses, but the 6,435,000,000 workers to carry the idea to completion!
In other words, there is not a chance for a post-collapse civilization to find those books and – BAM – reboot to monorails, supersonic transports and orbiting comsats.
Thus the Encyclopedia Foundation regards 1911 as the “trunk and branches” needful to let humanity rediscover all else. It is the highest level of tech that is of remotely possible interest to an uneducated and impoverished community.
Given that, our choice of the 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica makes more sense to people. It has remarkable benefits and in only 32 volumes! It has articles on plenty of tech of the fancy kind most think of – planes, trains and automobiles – but it also has all the practical arts that would help give ideas and aid to those living at the level the Amish do.
It is both the “trunk and branches” with the start of some of the smaller branches. Just the start. But if they get back to the level of 1911, then obviously it will take them only 100 years to get to where we are. As before they can get back to that level, the population will have had to grow. With the books, you might not need the geniuses as much, but you sure need the workers for mass production so as to make stuff affordable, and thus be able to “diffuse” throughout the world.
Besides those 32 volumes, what other books to help “reboot”? You would need children’s educational books, Kindergarten through 12th grade, so that they could make sense of what they read in the Britannica. McGuffey’s Readers were the standard for that time period, and there were six of them. Add in some high school text books on Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology. Let us say that instructional texts, including McGuffey’s, works out to 20 volumes. That puts us up to 52 volumes.
You aren’t going to make them have to refigure out every measurement, are you? Include the Machinist’s Handbook. The Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. The Handbook of Biology, Biochemistry and Chemistry. That’s three more, or 55 total.
What about medicine? The Encyclopedia Foundation cannot emphasize enough how important a large population is for there to be any innovations. You will want a copy of Gray’s Anatomy. Still the standard. “Obstetrics and Gynecology” by Beckman. “Where there is no Doctor” by David Werner and “Where there is no Dentist” by Murray Dickson. “Diseases of Women”, “Pediatrics”. Those are medical texts. You can often find them in used stores. We’re up to 61 volumes now, but the more children are born and grow up the better. More minds. More hands.
“Five Acres and Independence” and the “Foxfire Series” (12 volumes) This brings us up to 74 volumes now, but the survivors must know how to be independent 19th century level farmers without fuel powered machinery.
The Encyclopedia Foundation expresses no preference as to what specific titles, but would wish for texts on Carpentry, Masonry and Bricklaying, Blacksmithing, Plumbing, Sewer Systems, and Electricity. Also texts on Basic Mathematics, Algebra, Geometry, Calculus and Trigonometry. Now we’re at 85.
Have a general book on Medical Theory. A general overview about how Anatomy, Anesthesia and Antisepsis are the basis of modern surgery. And the germ theory of disease is the basis of modern medicine. Have a book on Surgical procedures, such as a doctor would have. For in case anyone has an appendicitis. And find a book on making Ether. That’s three more volumes.
Have a book or books on all aspects of guns. And ammo making and gunpowder making. We make no judgments, but know that any who survive will need to stay alive to benefit from the books. In this unpleasant “section” a book on explosives would be appropriate. The U.S. Army has some manuals on surviving in hostile territory and improvised explosives. We believe this section can be done in five volumes. That’s 93 total.
You will also need “The Prince” by Machiavelli, “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, “On War” by von Clausewitz, “Guerrilla Warfare” by Mao Tse-Tung. If you don’t know why, or don’t agree, then you don’t understand what a collapse of civilization means, or that a “reboot” will not be conducted peaceably. Civilizations are formed by persuading, usually forcibly, a diverse group of people to come under the authority of one agency. Having done so, they may work and create in relative peace within the protected territory, being peaceably “robbed” a little by their leaders so as to not be utterly destroyed by looters elsewhere.
“Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. “The Rights of Man” by Thomas Paine. This will help those “leaders” know that the easier they are on their people, the more taxes they can get from them. 90% of a peasant’s income is nothing compared to 20% of an American worker’s income. And the freer the peoples, the less chance of having to put down a revolt.
Finally, the KJV Bible. (King James Version) There are practical reasons for this book, as detailed in another article. The proverbs alone make it worthwhile. And as a civilizing influence on leaders and subjects alike, it is without peer, regardless as to popular historical revisionism.
We hear you. That’s 100, but it’s not enough! What about refrigeration and electronics and computers and history and, and, and…we agree. And blueprints for machines and tool and die making and so on. This is just if you had to do it in 100 books. It’s the trunk and a few thick branches, not the whole tree. It would grow, though.
Now, from this you can see that if you were to shoot for 1,000 books, you could greatly expand this. Besides adding many more subjects, you could expand on the currently listed subjects. And you could add the Harvard Classics, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, other religious holy books, history books, Greek and Roman writings, Euclid, Aristotle and so on.
Frankly, you could call out names all day, call out subjects all night, suggest idea after idea, and after we put them all in, we’d still be under a thousand.
We suggest then that for any civilization re-booting project that the 100 books listed above be acquired and preserved first. Then add to that. With the 100 as a base, the more you add the better, but if you run out of funds or will power, then what you have will serve the future well.
The books should have two copies of each of them. One for the public to access now, and one sealed up to be preserved for later. Books of paper store best at 65 degrees Fahrenheit, 40% humidity, no light, and a non-oxygen atmosphere. In other words, shut them into a nitrogen filled vault, weld that shut and store it under your basement with a good concrete casing to keep water away from it.
Or put them on metal plates like we’re going to. Because that list above is the stuff we were planning on having on the other metal plates. The first metal plate will have the 13th Edition, the Harvard Classics, the children’s texts, Shakespeare and the KJV Bible. Then the others, one at a time, as much as we can fit on each plate, as appropriate.
The first plate first. We believe that alone could be a viable “civilization re-boot”. It would certainly be better than nothing. But after we have that one plate as our base, we will expand to the rest of those 100 books mentioned, that will be Plate Two. (Perhaps more if we end up not fitting as many volumes per plate as we are picturing) And after we have those two to five plates as our new base, we will shoot for that 1,000.
We have time.
The Harvard Classics
The Encyclopedia Foundation chose the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge (or The Harvard Classics) as the most appropriate companion set to the 13th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
This set was published in 1910, one year before the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica was published. Historically, the same time.
The stated purpose caught our eye. The compiler, Dr. Charles Eliot, was President of Harvard University, back when it had the highest of standards. That is, folks like Conan O’Brien (funny as he can be) weren’t giving commencement speeches back then, and honorary degrees weren’t being awarded to generously donating dictators.
Dr. Eliot claimed that a person could have the equivalent of a liberal arts degree from Harvard if they would just read 15 minutes a day from a series of books that could fit on a five foot shelf. He later described, and had published, 51 volumes that were representative of Western literary, historical, cultural, scientific, and religious thought.
It was masterful, it was a wild success, and it’s popularity is undiminished 101 years later! (Sets may be found on ebay anywhere from $100 to $300.)
There have been some that have tried to imitate this. Or “update” it. “Great Books of the Western World” is a notable example. However, the problems with other sets were several. Often times, bias would be present, political correctness would creep in, ideological agendas would overwhelm…it kept any reasonably good set from being created.
Another problem was that the original set has a certain panache. It was published before World War One, same time as the Britannica set so famous, and represented – as did the Britannica – the end of an era. After the “Great War”, the world lost a lot of its optimism.
From a historical standpoint, these two sets (Harvard and Britannica) are THE sets for being the recording of all knowledge and culture up until the turn of the 20th century. Those two sets “are” that era.
The Britannica has the how to. But the Harvard Classics has the why. How to live. And why we live. Truth. And beauty.
The Harvard Classics have 51 volumes of about 500 pages each. The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica has 32 volumes of about 1,000 pages each. So in under 60,000 pages, in under 100 books, one could be educated completely by early 20th century standards. And more than “educated completely”, the most rudimentary grasp of those would render you a savant!
This set was published in 1910, one year before the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica was published. Historically, the same time.
The stated purpose caught our eye. The compiler, Dr. Charles Eliot, was President of Harvard University, back when it had the highest of standards. That is, folks like Conan O’Brien (funny as he can be) weren’t giving commencement speeches back then, and honorary degrees weren’t being awarded to generously donating dictators.
Dr. Eliot claimed that a person could have the equivalent of a liberal arts degree from Harvard if they would just read 15 minutes a day from a series of books that could fit on a five foot shelf. He later described, and had published, 51 volumes that were representative of Western literary, historical, cultural, scientific, and religious thought.
It was masterful, it was a wild success, and it’s popularity is undiminished 101 years later! (Sets may be found on ebay anywhere from $100 to $300.)
There have been some that have tried to imitate this. Or “update” it. “Great Books of the Western World” is a notable example. However, the problems with other sets were several. Often times, bias would be present, political correctness would creep in, ideological agendas would overwhelm…it kept any reasonably good set from being created.
Another problem was that the original set has a certain panache. It was published before World War One, same time as the Britannica set so famous, and represented – as did the Britannica – the end of an era. After the “Great War”, the world lost a lot of its optimism.
From a historical standpoint, these two sets (Harvard and Britannica) are THE sets for being the recording of all knowledge and culture up until the turn of the 20th century. Those two sets “are” that era.
The Britannica has the how to. But the Harvard Classics has the why. How to live. And why we live. Truth. And beauty.
The Harvard Classics have 51 volumes of about 500 pages each. The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica has 32 volumes of about 1,000 pages each. So in under 60,000 pages, in under 100 books, one could be educated completely by early 20th century standards. And more than “educated completely”, the most rudimentary grasp of those would render you a savant!
Celsius 450
The Encyclopedia Foundation is, of a necessity, inordinately preoccupied with the preservation of books. True, we are going to have books transcribed on metal plates, but we have regular books, and plan on having more.
Such books have utility for the short term – the next century or two. Were civilization to run into problems, it would be handy to have paper books to refer to. In fact, so long as civilization continues, and the Encyclopedia Foundation continues, too, we will continually update with paper copies.
By paper, we mean hardback books of paper.
What if civilization continues, though, but books are outlawed? It seems unlikely, but we all are aware of Ray Bradbury’s classic book “Fahrenheit 451” in which the government sought out and burned books wherever they found them. The title was supposed to be the temperature at which paper spontaneously combusts.
At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we needed more than Mr. Bradbury’s word for it, though we do admire his writings, so we looked into that. Turns out paper combusts at 450 degrees Celsius, or “Fahrenheit 842”. Oops. But a good “oops” in that it takes a bit more heat for a book to burn than most think.
We still weren’t sure so we baked a book in the oven at 450 degrees. For half an hour. It didn’t burn. We hope you appreciate the efforts we at the Encyclopedia Foundation make on behalf of humanity! Our tireless Foundation researchers conduct important experiments like this all the time!
But “Fun with Science” notwithstanding, what is to be done should some future government decide to burn all the books? Well, relax, the Encyclopedia Foundation has you covered!
1. We will not violate the law. As a non-profit organization we are chartered by the government. It would be wrong to do so, and we take that seriously. However, there is no law against books right now, nor is there likely to be for some decades, if not a century or two. So this is not an immediate crisis.
2. Our business plan mandates that we send copies of books preserved on metal plates to various long term organizations. The four main ones are to be the Long Now Foundation, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a Buddhist Temple in either India or China.
We therefore feel that if on some distant day books are outlawed, that the Latter Day Saints will have probably transferred their libraries to an overseas branch even before the law is passed. Such laws never spring up all at once. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church is based in Rome, and the Buddhists will be in one of the two nations that are likely to be hard to push around in the future.
So if asked by that future government, our successors will tell them where they are and who has them. As would be legally required. We just don’t think that information would do those future authorities much good.
3. However, we have not decided which Buddhist Temple, and when we do, we will not record it. We feel sure that so great a length of time will pass between when we do that, and when books are outlawed (if ever) that we will all be dead, and our successors will not have the information to give. We are aware that this might possibly make us “accessories before the fact” to a crime of the 25th century. But it is not a crime now. Nor will those running the Foundation then be guilty of a crime, they have no say over what we are doing, 100 or 1,000 years before they are born.
4. The Foundation at that future hypothetically dystopic point, now book free and in compliance with those hypothetical laws, will continue on in its other activities. If advocating to legalize books is allowed, we’ll do that. We will continue to give aid to those in need, few governments outlaw that.
One day, books would be legal again. Requests would be sent to Rome and Salt Lake City for the plates, that we may make new copies and send them back. And the mission continues.
(As a side note, we are painfully aware that what Ray Bradbury was really writing about was NOT government book burning – but about a public that preferred “wall screens” and “reality shows” over books, such that eventually there was just no market for them. Only then in his future vision were laws passed – against that which no one at that future time wanted any more.)
Such books have utility for the short term – the next century or two. Were civilization to run into problems, it would be handy to have paper books to refer to. In fact, so long as civilization continues, and the Encyclopedia Foundation continues, too, we will continually update with paper copies.
By paper, we mean hardback books of paper.
What if civilization continues, though, but books are outlawed? It seems unlikely, but we all are aware of Ray Bradbury’s classic book “Fahrenheit 451” in which the government sought out and burned books wherever they found them. The title was supposed to be the temperature at which paper spontaneously combusts.
At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we needed more than Mr. Bradbury’s word for it, though we do admire his writings, so we looked into that. Turns out paper combusts at 450 degrees Celsius, or “Fahrenheit 842”. Oops. But a good “oops” in that it takes a bit more heat for a book to burn than most think.
We still weren’t sure so we baked a book in the oven at 450 degrees. For half an hour. It didn’t burn. We hope you appreciate the efforts we at the Encyclopedia Foundation make on behalf of humanity! Our tireless Foundation researchers conduct important experiments like this all the time!
But “Fun with Science” notwithstanding, what is to be done should some future government decide to burn all the books? Well, relax, the Encyclopedia Foundation has you covered!
1. We will not violate the law. As a non-profit organization we are chartered by the government. It would be wrong to do so, and we take that seriously. However, there is no law against books right now, nor is there likely to be for some decades, if not a century or two. So this is not an immediate crisis.
2. Our business plan mandates that we send copies of books preserved on metal plates to various long term organizations. The four main ones are to be the Long Now Foundation, the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a Buddhist Temple in either India or China.
We therefore feel that if on some distant day books are outlawed, that the Latter Day Saints will have probably transferred their libraries to an overseas branch even before the law is passed. Such laws never spring up all at once. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church is based in Rome, and the Buddhists will be in one of the two nations that are likely to be hard to push around in the future.
So if asked by that future government, our successors will tell them where they are and who has them. As would be legally required. We just don’t think that information would do those future authorities much good.
3. However, we have not decided which Buddhist Temple, and when we do, we will not record it. We feel sure that so great a length of time will pass between when we do that, and when books are outlawed (if ever) that we will all be dead, and our successors will not have the information to give. We are aware that this might possibly make us “accessories before the fact” to a crime of the 25th century. But it is not a crime now. Nor will those running the Foundation then be guilty of a crime, they have no say over what we are doing, 100 or 1,000 years before they are born.
4. The Foundation at that future hypothetically dystopic point, now book free and in compliance with those hypothetical laws, will continue on in its other activities. If advocating to legalize books is allowed, we’ll do that. We will continue to give aid to those in need, few governments outlaw that.
One day, books would be legal again. Requests would be sent to Rome and Salt Lake City for the plates, that we may make new copies and send them back. And the mission continues.
(As a side note, we are painfully aware that what Ray Bradbury was really writing about was NOT government book burning – but about a public that preferred “wall screens” and “reality shows” over books, such that eventually there was just no market for them. Only then in his future vision were laws passed – against that which no one at that future time wanted any more.)
Friday, April 29, 2011
The KJV Bible
The Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-political and non-religious. Doesn’t mean the Directors might not have opinions, but they are not relevant to the mission, any more than your faith is relevant to your day job.
It may raise eyebrows then that we intend on preserving the King James Version of the Holy Bible. On the very first metal plate. The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare…and that Bible.
We are including it for several reasons.
One, it is of vast cultural significance. Those fifty books of the Harvard Series are. No one questions that. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare are. No one questions that.
Likewise, obviously the Bible is. Specifically – at least for English speaking Westerners – the King James Version.
But besides being of cultural significance, we at the Encyclopedia Foundation are perhaps more aware of its role in history than others. You see, for a long time, books being so expensive, it was about the only book a person had. Books were hand wrote, so if you could only afford one, that was the one to get.
Even when printers got rolling, books were still expensive. Unless you were rich, one book was what you’d have, and the Bible was your best bet. Not only for the religious instruction, but for the moral instruction, the history of it, the sheer abundance of stories, the proverbs, the adventures, the political lesson, the teachings of warfare, and guide to political intrigue, sanitation rules, how to maintain an army camp without diseases ravaging it…and on and on and on.
It wasn’t gun that let the Spanish conquer the Aztecs and Incas. It was literacy. The Spanish could read, they had books – including the Bible. Any educated man had read that. They had then thousands of years of experience in warfare and political intrigue.
What did the Incan’s have? Nothing. Whatever their personal experience was. Whatever stories they remembered from grandpa. They were hopelessly naïve and educationally outclassed. And that Bible, regarded by many as some silly religious book, was actually the prime book that educated those in positions of power.
Do you want to know how to keep diseases out of a military camp in the field? Deuteronomy 23:13, “And thous shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee.”
The Spanish knew this. The Incans didn’t. For those of you busy calling out that diseases killed more Natives than Spanish steel or books did. True enough. Diseases did kill more. Pity their armies massed in the hundreds of thousands hadn’t heard of Moses. If so, they might still be here.
If one could have one book set, the Encyclopedia Foundation has made clear that it should be the 13th Edition of (say it with me!) the Encyclopedia Britannica. But if one could have just one single book with which to start over…well, if you think about it, then no matter your faith, the Bible would be at the top of the list. No other book packs so much diversity into it.
As to which “version”, that is so contentious. Everyone has a “version”.
Fortunately for us, the King James Version is of obvious and unquestioned historical and cultural significance. So we are spared having to defend our choice. We pick the historically significant one.
(We would be happy to hear from anyone who wished us to store a version they found more appropriate, though.)
It may raise eyebrows then that we intend on preserving the King James Version of the Holy Bible. On the very first metal plate. The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare…and that Bible.
We are including it for several reasons.
One, it is of vast cultural significance. Those fifty books of the Harvard Series are. No one questions that. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare are. No one questions that.
Likewise, obviously the Bible is. Specifically – at least for English speaking Westerners – the King James Version.
But besides being of cultural significance, we at the Encyclopedia Foundation are perhaps more aware of its role in history than others. You see, for a long time, books being so expensive, it was about the only book a person had. Books were hand wrote, so if you could only afford one, that was the one to get.
Even when printers got rolling, books were still expensive. Unless you were rich, one book was what you’d have, and the Bible was your best bet. Not only for the religious instruction, but for the moral instruction, the history of it, the sheer abundance of stories, the proverbs, the adventures, the political lesson, the teachings of warfare, and guide to political intrigue, sanitation rules, how to maintain an army camp without diseases ravaging it…and on and on and on.
It wasn’t gun that let the Spanish conquer the Aztecs and Incas. It was literacy. The Spanish could read, they had books – including the Bible. Any educated man had read that. They had then thousands of years of experience in warfare and political intrigue.
What did the Incan’s have? Nothing. Whatever their personal experience was. Whatever stories they remembered from grandpa. They were hopelessly naïve and educationally outclassed. And that Bible, regarded by many as some silly religious book, was actually the prime book that educated those in positions of power.
Do you want to know how to keep diseases out of a military camp in the field? Deuteronomy 23:13, “And thous shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee.”
The Spanish knew this. The Incans didn’t. For those of you busy calling out that diseases killed more Natives than Spanish steel or books did. True enough. Diseases did kill more. Pity their armies massed in the hundreds of thousands hadn’t heard of Moses. If so, they might still be here.
If one could have one book set, the Encyclopedia Foundation has made clear that it should be the 13th Edition of (say it with me!) the Encyclopedia Britannica. But if one could have just one single book with which to start over…well, if you think about it, then no matter your faith, the Bible would be at the top of the list. No other book packs so much diversity into it.
As to which “version”, that is so contentious. Everyone has a “version”.
Fortunately for us, the King James Version is of obvious and unquestioned historical and cultural significance. So we are spared having to defend our choice. We pick the historically significant one.
(We would be happy to hear from anyone who wished us to store a version they found more appropriate, though.)
11th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica
Regular readers of the Terminus Times, here at the Encyclopedia Foundation website, are well familiar with the phrase “the 13th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica”. If there are some typos, it might say 12th edition. Or sometimes you see it say the 11th edition. What is the deal?
The 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is the most known and revered set they ever came out with. They did so in 1911, and it is generally regarded as one of the finest encyclopedia sets ever done. It is the closest thing to the totality of late 19th, early 20th century knowledge you will ever see.
The 12th edition is simply the exact same 29 volume 11th edition, plus three supplemental volumes. The 13th edition is still the exact same 11th edition, but the three supplemental volumes are updated.
After that, later editions involved changes in the main series, so that the 11th edition was no more.
What the Encyclopedia Foundation intends on preserving is the 13th edition. The 29 volume 11th edition, plus the three latest supplemental volumes published in the nineteen twenties.
Frankly, we pondered whether to do that. It can be said that it is outdated. That there are actual factual errors in it. That there is even racial bias.
But even if we chose a “modern” Encyclopedia Britannica, we realized that it would be out of date soon enough. We are preserving it for ten thousand years, so even the 100th edition of the future Encyclopedia Britannica is going to be out of date and have errors!
So if we must pick one, since any will have errors, we chose the one that has the greatest historical and cultural and literary significance. And that is the 11th.
You see, 1911 was probably the last year in which it was even possible to think about having all the knowledge of mankind in one set. It was also the end of an era, that era being “The Age of Enlightenment”. Till then, mankind was generally imagining that things would only get better, that we had turned a corner, that our industrial and technological progress would end wars, end poverty and usher in a golden age.
This may well still happen, but mankind is not notably expecting that so much, not after the “century of wars” we had.
Also, from a pragmatic point of view, it is important to have a “blueprint” of knowledge for getting up to an early 20th century standard of technology and science. You see, from that the rest could be discovered, the rest could be rebuilt.
That level of technology is still simple enough to explain, past that, it becomes too complex. One can see how a steam engine works, even if they are not very familiar with technology. One cannot see how an electronic computer works.
The 13th Edition is also in the common domain. It is not copyright protected, and it is already on line. This makes our task much easier.
To all those who share the dream of preserving the knowledge of mankind, we recommend that you buy a copy. You can find them on ebay, very pricey but worth it. Your set will last a few hundred years with care. If you are more ambitious, contact us and we will help share with you how to make a more durable copy.
Another article did an out of the blue estimate of…well, quite high. But we bet we can figure out ways of making it much cheaper!
The 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is the most known and revered set they ever came out with. They did so in 1911, and it is generally regarded as one of the finest encyclopedia sets ever done. It is the closest thing to the totality of late 19th, early 20th century knowledge you will ever see.
The 12th edition is simply the exact same 29 volume 11th edition, plus three supplemental volumes. The 13th edition is still the exact same 11th edition, but the three supplemental volumes are updated.
After that, later editions involved changes in the main series, so that the 11th edition was no more.
What the Encyclopedia Foundation intends on preserving is the 13th edition. The 29 volume 11th edition, plus the three latest supplemental volumes published in the nineteen twenties.
Frankly, we pondered whether to do that. It can be said that it is outdated. That there are actual factual errors in it. That there is even racial bias.
But even if we chose a “modern” Encyclopedia Britannica, we realized that it would be out of date soon enough. We are preserving it for ten thousand years, so even the 100th edition of the future Encyclopedia Britannica is going to be out of date and have errors!
So if we must pick one, since any will have errors, we chose the one that has the greatest historical and cultural and literary significance. And that is the 11th.
You see, 1911 was probably the last year in which it was even possible to think about having all the knowledge of mankind in one set. It was also the end of an era, that era being “The Age of Enlightenment”. Till then, mankind was generally imagining that things would only get better, that we had turned a corner, that our industrial and technological progress would end wars, end poverty and usher in a golden age.
This may well still happen, but mankind is not notably expecting that so much, not after the “century of wars” we had.
Also, from a pragmatic point of view, it is important to have a “blueprint” of knowledge for getting up to an early 20th century standard of technology and science. You see, from that the rest could be discovered, the rest could be rebuilt.
That level of technology is still simple enough to explain, past that, it becomes too complex. One can see how a steam engine works, even if they are not very familiar with technology. One cannot see how an electronic computer works.
The 13th Edition is also in the common domain. It is not copyright protected, and it is already on line. This makes our task much easier.
To all those who share the dream of preserving the knowledge of mankind, we recommend that you buy a copy. You can find them on ebay, very pricey but worth it. Your set will last a few hundred years with care. If you are more ambitious, contact us and we will help share with you how to make a more durable copy.
Another article did an out of the blue estimate of…well, quite high. But we bet we can figure out ways of making it much cheaper!
How to compete with us!
The Encyclopedia Foundation is a small Foundation. But apparently we are ahead of some others who share our dreams.
For instance, we once saw a site where someone wished to have a time vault style library. But the entirety of the site was little more than a request for a “benefactor” to contact him/her! (He or she may be doing more and just not saying so, this article takes the hypothetical case that some may not be.)
We don’t doubt his/her sincerity, but we have always felt that one should have more than a website before seeking donations. You see, if you are seeking some to donate for a building and some to donate the books and some to donate the routine costs of upkeep and such…then what exactly do you bring to the table? In other words, can’t all those people do it without you? Or just donate to the Long Now Foundation and be done with it? (The Long Now Foundation is always a good place to donate.)
For that reason, we at the Encyclopedia Foundation didn’t even bother with a website until we had a facility. And we didn’t bother having any mention of donations until we had spent over $25,000 fixing it up AND bought a second facility that we are currently fixing up. Not to mention that we have the incorporation, the business plan, and detailed plans as to how to do all this, not just dreams.
And, after all that, we aren’t even specifically seeking donations! We feel that such would do more good if given to the Long Now Foundation. We believe we can do without them, though obviously we would not turn such away.
But what of that no doubt sincere person with his/her website, and no doubt some good ideas, patiently waiting for that benefactor? We wish to help that hypothetical person who only has the idea. For it is at least a good idea. And after all, our business plan specifically says that we welcome competition, we want as much of it as possible!
Now, we have no extra funds laying about to sponsor anyone. And we doubt if that person or others wishes to simply join us, though any are welcome to. So we thought the question, “How can we make it easy for others to compete?”
One way is this site and this blog. We are trying to show all the things we are doing so that others can do the same thing. We have a “no secrets” policy, if we’ve thought of something, there’s no need for you to have waste time discovering it. Ask, we’ll tell you. Look, and it’s probably here already!
Another way is to make the idea cheaper. We don’t wish to go discount, but we can see where it could work well as a “back up” plan. A way exists to preserve data for thousands of years that is cheaper. It takes up more space, and it preserves less knowledge, but it is cheaper, and if enough others did it, then even if they didn’t have a great vault, it might, just might, end up being what lasts till the year 12,008.
Here it is:
(Note – we endorse none of the following companies, they were just what a quick google search took us to. Prices may vary depending on when you read this article. The Encyclopedia Foundation has absolutely no relationship with them whatsoever, we are not even past or present customers.)
1. You purchase an EGX-350 engraver from Bellco Computerized Engraving Systems. www.bellcoinc.com This will cost around $5,000. You will want it to have the diamond tip engraver, the ones it comes with won’t do. And relax, the difference in price on the tip between the standard versus industrial diamond is only about $10.
2. Purchase sheets of nickel from Online Metals. www.onlinemetals.com You can buy 12 inch by 12 inch sheets for under $10, however, the engraver machine can only accommodate 9 inch by 12 inch sheets so it may be even less per sheet. You need to know how many sheets of metal you need.
If you are intending to preserve the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (the 13th edition minus the three supplements) then you should know that it has 29 volumes to it, each about 1,000 pages. Clearly, even if you got the sheets at $5 per, this may prove beyond your means. ($145,000)
3. If it is, find one book that you feel is worth saving. Perhaps the two volume “The Intelligent Man’s Guide to Science” by the late Dr. Isaac Asimov. At a bit under 1,000 pages that may be more affordable. ($10,000 if assuming $10 per sheet) (This is an example only, there may be copyright concerns if you were to choose that.)
4. Having made a metal plate copy of whatever book or book set you chose, have custom built frames made. They should be designed to hold the metal plates so that they do not touch each other, and so that they fit exactly into a giant safe you buy. I am not going to look up specific prices on those, the safe could cost around $1,000 to $2,000 and the frames depending on how bad a local craftsman needs the work. When in there, weld shut the safe.
Now at this point, you are thinking that we at the Encyclopedia Foundation are just being mean, and mocking those who wish to try. We aren’t. Far from it.
The three things to remember are this:
One, if you truly can’t afford it, then help those who are embarked on your mission. Donate to the Long Now Foundation, or to us, or to anyone you see who is actually about the actual preservation of the knowledge. Not to a “website” or a person with a dream, but to some viable organization actually getting it done.
Two, who said you can’t afford that? Seriously? You have a dream of preserving knowledge for a thousand years, ten thousand years, a million years…given that, you can’t invest ten years of your life into that dream? The five thousand dollar machine, the ten thousand dollars for the plates, the five thousand dollars for safe and frame and miscellaneous, that adds up to $20,000. We know people who blow more than that on a car that will never do more than take them two miles each way to work and last them less than 5 years.
$20,000 is $2,000 a year for ten years. Or $166.66 a month. We know people – like ourselves – who spend twice that on smokes each month!
Point is, if you are serious, then in ten years you could look at a book engraved on metal plates that will last ten thousand years! And you made it yourself!
Three, think outside the box! Want to save more money? Then why by the EGX-350 when others already have it? Call them up and hire them to do it. Might not be cheap, but may be less than the five grand for a machine that you may only be able to afford to use once! $1,000? Maybe! Go ask!
Want to save more money? Why spend $5000 give or take on a vault or frames when others are already in the book storing business? On the first plate of the book, have this message added: “This book made possible by John Doe and donated to the Long Now Foundation for safe keeping, that the future may benefit from our long term thinking.” Then ship it to them.
(If you take that route, you may wish to consult with them as to which book they’d like. And you could donate it to us, if you prefer. There might be a spot on our board, depending on if we like the book! Ask us first, if you choose that route!)
In any case, we hope that you take away from this that preserving knowledge can be expensive, but can be done. Anyone can do it. You do NOT need a benefactor. Just determination, and not much determination at that.
And you don’t have to go it alone. Others share your dream. Efforts can be pooled. Ideas swapped. Suggestions and tips offered. If it is your dream, then make it real. Let there be something real and solid that you can say that you did. Something that will last forever.
For instance, we once saw a site where someone wished to have a time vault style library. But the entirety of the site was little more than a request for a “benefactor” to contact him/her! (He or she may be doing more and just not saying so, this article takes the hypothetical case that some may not be.)
We don’t doubt his/her sincerity, but we have always felt that one should have more than a website before seeking donations. You see, if you are seeking some to donate for a building and some to donate the books and some to donate the routine costs of upkeep and such…then what exactly do you bring to the table? In other words, can’t all those people do it without you? Or just donate to the Long Now Foundation and be done with it? (The Long Now Foundation is always a good place to donate.)
For that reason, we at the Encyclopedia Foundation didn’t even bother with a website until we had a facility. And we didn’t bother having any mention of donations until we had spent over $25,000 fixing it up AND bought a second facility that we are currently fixing up. Not to mention that we have the incorporation, the business plan, and detailed plans as to how to do all this, not just dreams.
And, after all that, we aren’t even specifically seeking donations! We feel that such would do more good if given to the Long Now Foundation. We believe we can do without them, though obviously we would not turn such away.
But what of that no doubt sincere person with his/her website, and no doubt some good ideas, patiently waiting for that benefactor? We wish to help that hypothetical person who only has the idea. For it is at least a good idea. And after all, our business plan specifically says that we welcome competition, we want as much of it as possible!
Now, we have no extra funds laying about to sponsor anyone. And we doubt if that person or others wishes to simply join us, though any are welcome to. So we thought the question, “How can we make it easy for others to compete?”
One way is this site and this blog. We are trying to show all the things we are doing so that others can do the same thing. We have a “no secrets” policy, if we’ve thought of something, there’s no need for you to have waste time discovering it. Ask, we’ll tell you. Look, and it’s probably here already!
Another way is to make the idea cheaper. We don’t wish to go discount, but we can see where it could work well as a “back up” plan. A way exists to preserve data for thousands of years that is cheaper. It takes up more space, and it preserves less knowledge, but it is cheaper, and if enough others did it, then even if they didn’t have a great vault, it might, just might, end up being what lasts till the year 12,008.
Here it is:
(Note – we endorse none of the following companies, they were just what a quick google search took us to. Prices may vary depending on when you read this article. The Encyclopedia Foundation has absolutely no relationship with them whatsoever, we are not even past or present customers.)
1. You purchase an EGX-350 engraver from Bellco Computerized Engraving Systems. www.bellcoinc.com This will cost around $5,000. You will want it to have the diamond tip engraver, the ones it comes with won’t do. And relax, the difference in price on the tip between the standard versus industrial diamond is only about $10.
2. Purchase sheets of nickel from Online Metals. www.onlinemetals.com You can buy 12 inch by 12 inch sheets for under $10, however, the engraver machine can only accommodate 9 inch by 12 inch sheets so it may be even less per sheet. You need to know how many sheets of metal you need.
If you are intending to preserve the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica (the 13th edition minus the three supplements) then you should know that it has 29 volumes to it, each about 1,000 pages. Clearly, even if you got the sheets at $5 per, this may prove beyond your means. ($145,000)
3. If it is, find one book that you feel is worth saving. Perhaps the two volume “The Intelligent Man’s Guide to Science” by the late Dr. Isaac Asimov. At a bit under 1,000 pages that may be more affordable. ($10,000 if assuming $10 per sheet) (This is an example only, there may be copyright concerns if you were to choose that.)
4. Having made a metal plate copy of whatever book or book set you chose, have custom built frames made. They should be designed to hold the metal plates so that they do not touch each other, and so that they fit exactly into a giant safe you buy. I am not going to look up specific prices on those, the safe could cost around $1,000 to $2,000 and the frames depending on how bad a local craftsman needs the work. When in there, weld shut the safe.
Now at this point, you are thinking that we at the Encyclopedia Foundation are just being mean, and mocking those who wish to try. We aren’t. Far from it.
The three things to remember are this:
One, if you truly can’t afford it, then help those who are embarked on your mission. Donate to the Long Now Foundation, or to us, or to anyone you see who is actually about the actual preservation of the knowledge. Not to a “website” or a person with a dream, but to some viable organization actually getting it done.
Two, who said you can’t afford that? Seriously? You have a dream of preserving knowledge for a thousand years, ten thousand years, a million years…given that, you can’t invest ten years of your life into that dream? The five thousand dollar machine, the ten thousand dollars for the plates, the five thousand dollars for safe and frame and miscellaneous, that adds up to $20,000. We know people who blow more than that on a car that will never do more than take them two miles each way to work and last them less than 5 years.
$20,000 is $2,000 a year for ten years. Or $166.66 a month. We know people – like ourselves – who spend twice that on smokes each month!
Point is, if you are serious, then in ten years you could look at a book engraved on metal plates that will last ten thousand years! And you made it yourself!
Three, think outside the box! Want to save more money? Then why by the EGX-350 when others already have it? Call them up and hire them to do it. Might not be cheap, but may be less than the five grand for a machine that you may only be able to afford to use once! $1,000? Maybe! Go ask!
Want to save more money? Why spend $5000 give or take on a vault or frames when others are already in the book storing business? On the first plate of the book, have this message added: “This book made possible by John Doe and donated to the Long Now Foundation for safe keeping, that the future may benefit from our long term thinking.” Then ship it to them.
(If you take that route, you may wish to consult with them as to which book they’d like. And you could donate it to us, if you prefer. There might be a spot on our board, depending on if we like the book! Ask us first, if you choose that route!)
In any case, we hope that you take away from this that preserving knowledge can be expensive, but can be done. Anyone can do it. You do NOT need a benefactor. Just determination, and not much determination at that.
And you don’t have to go it alone. Others share your dream. Efforts can be pooled. Ideas swapped. Suggestions and tips offered. If it is your dream, then make it real. Let there be something real and solid that you can say that you did. Something that will last forever.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Page
The Encyclopedia Foundation has as part of its mission statement this line, “and make plans for the assistance of anyone who finds themselves in a position where ordinary education is difficult or impossible.”
The design of the metal plates will have to take that into account.
The plates will be engraved in regular sized font. It will state what the plate is about and how to use the lenses to see more. That regular sized font will be on what appears to be a checkerboard, but will really be tens of thousands of pages of micro-engraved data.
That data, readable by the lenses, will contain the data on the subject, but no matter the subject, one part will always be how to construct and use the type of high powered microscope needed to read the final layer.
That layer will be even more micro-miniaturized print that is between the micro-engraved pages. In those spaces will be hundreds of thousands of pages of additional data.
Though the hypothetical future viewer won’t know it, that last layer, with over a million pages, will always be the same. The “same” being that it will have all the data we have available for storage. That way, no matter what metal plate is found, on any subject, while it will contain an exhaustive account of that subject in the second layer, the third will be everything else as well.
Example: First layer, “This page contains the Encyclopedia Britannica 13th edition, the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge, the King James Version of the Holy Bible and the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Please know that the little squares you see are the pages, and you can read these pages with the lenses in the box with the picture of eyes on it. You will have to place the plate on the table with the pictures of hands on it. Fasten it in with the clamps. Make sure the lantern is lit and nearby. Start at the upper corner where you see the five pointed star. They are in order from the top to the bottom and from the corner with the star to the corner with the crescent.”
“Besides those books, there will be instructions as to how to build a microscope sufficient to see even further. There you will find the collected knowledge of mankind. There you will learn to control the power of lightning and of the sun. You will learn how to fly, and how to journey to the heavens. If this is of no use to you, please leave it for someone else. If you know someone who would appreciate it, please take it to them, and let them know where you found it.”
Now as to the second layer, they are starting at the upper left hand corner (the star!) as we told them to. (The plate in Arabic will need to start at the upper right, due to the language rules.)
That first page of the second layer will be a congratulations, and further explanation. A “Table of Contents” if you will.
“The Encyclopedia Foundation congratulates you on finding or making a lens with which to read this! All information that you seek is to be found here. Other plates with the same information, or other subjects, may be found not only in our Vault, but at the following locations:
The Long Now Foundation at such and such latitude and such and such longitude. Here is a map of how to get there from here by means of roads that existed in 02011. (Map shown)
The Catholic Diocese in Such and Such at (latitude and longitude) (Map shown)
(Several more long term organizations and their locations)
Please note that the year 02011 was 42 years after men first landed on the moon in 01969 and 66 years after the first atomic bomb was exploded in 01945.
Going from the corner with the star to the corner with the moon and then back to the next row, over and over, will show you the following:
Page 1 – This page, the page you are reading right now.
Page 2 – An introduction from a person of the year 02011 CE. The person who’s message you will read is the one who helped create this page. Without him, it would not have been possible.
Page 3 – A explanation of the Encyclopedia Foundation, a group of people who wished to help preserve knowledge, and make it available to you. Also an explanation of how not all information is accurate, and what “fiction” means.
Page 4 – Page 10,000 Text books on English, Mathematics, and Science such as would be used in a school for children. From ages of five to eighteen. A reading of them will provide context.
Page 10,001 to Page 11,000 – The Oxford Dictionary to let you look up words you do not understand.
Page 11,001 to Page 43,000 - The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was the 11th edition regarded as the finest, plus three supplements. It contains the total of mankind’s knowledge as of the year 01911, or 8 years after the first mechanical airplane was invented in 01903. It also contains those three supplements making it current as of 01926.
Page 43,001 to 68,000 - The Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge
Page 68,001 to 70,000 – The King James Version of the Holy Bible
Page 70,001 to 71,000 – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Page 71,001 to 100,000 – Everything you need to know to build a high powered microscope
Now, as to the third layer, that will contain all that we intend on preserving. Though the “how to” on the microscope will involve a good deal of information on fields like ore refining, metallurgy, smelting, tool and die making, machining, electronics and more.
How is 100,000 pages readable with a lens or series of lenses? We will deliberately determine the size of the page based on that. On a two inch disc, you might get 10,000 pages readable with a lens or series of lenses. Perhaps then the “page” size we choose will be 20 inches a side.
Make no mistake, this is going to be an expensive project. And also, there are other ways of going about this. Frankly, we debate sometimes as whether a third layer – with the massive additional expense and the necessity for the people of the future to have electron microscopes – is practical.
It may be – time will tell – that we only have two layers, and each large “page” will have 100,000 pages of data. Maybe. But we’ll probably do the third layer. Anything worth doing…and all that.
The design of the metal plates will have to take that into account.
The plates will be engraved in regular sized font. It will state what the plate is about and how to use the lenses to see more. That regular sized font will be on what appears to be a checkerboard, but will really be tens of thousands of pages of micro-engraved data.
That data, readable by the lenses, will contain the data on the subject, but no matter the subject, one part will always be how to construct and use the type of high powered microscope needed to read the final layer.
That layer will be even more micro-miniaturized print that is between the micro-engraved pages. In those spaces will be hundreds of thousands of pages of additional data.
Though the hypothetical future viewer won’t know it, that last layer, with over a million pages, will always be the same. The “same” being that it will have all the data we have available for storage. That way, no matter what metal plate is found, on any subject, while it will contain an exhaustive account of that subject in the second layer, the third will be everything else as well.
Example: First layer, “This page contains the Encyclopedia Britannica 13th edition, the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge, the King James Version of the Holy Bible and the Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Please know that the little squares you see are the pages, and you can read these pages with the lenses in the box with the picture of eyes on it. You will have to place the plate on the table with the pictures of hands on it. Fasten it in with the clamps. Make sure the lantern is lit and nearby. Start at the upper corner where you see the five pointed star. They are in order from the top to the bottom and from the corner with the star to the corner with the crescent.”
“Besides those books, there will be instructions as to how to build a microscope sufficient to see even further. There you will find the collected knowledge of mankind. There you will learn to control the power of lightning and of the sun. You will learn how to fly, and how to journey to the heavens. If this is of no use to you, please leave it for someone else. If you know someone who would appreciate it, please take it to them, and let them know where you found it.”
Now as to the second layer, they are starting at the upper left hand corner (the star!) as we told them to. (The plate in Arabic will need to start at the upper right, due to the language rules.)
That first page of the second layer will be a congratulations, and further explanation. A “Table of Contents” if you will.
“The Encyclopedia Foundation congratulates you on finding or making a lens with which to read this! All information that you seek is to be found here. Other plates with the same information, or other subjects, may be found not only in our Vault, but at the following locations:
The Long Now Foundation at such and such latitude and such and such longitude. Here is a map of how to get there from here by means of roads that existed in 02011. (Map shown)
The Catholic Diocese in Such and Such at (latitude and longitude) (Map shown)
(Several more long term organizations and their locations)
Please note that the year 02011 was 42 years after men first landed on the moon in 01969 and 66 years after the first atomic bomb was exploded in 01945.
Going from the corner with the star to the corner with the moon and then back to the next row, over and over, will show you the following:
Page 1 – This page, the page you are reading right now.
Page 2 – An introduction from a person of the year 02011 CE. The person who’s message you will read is the one who helped create this page. Without him, it would not have been possible.
Page 3 – A explanation of the Encyclopedia Foundation, a group of people who wished to help preserve knowledge, and make it available to you. Also an explanation of how not all information is accurate, and what “fiction” means.
Page 4 – Page 10,000 Text books on English, Mathematics, and Science such as would be used in a school for children. From ages of five to eighteen. A reading of them will provide context.
Page 10,001 to Page 11,000 – The Oxford Dictionary to let you look up words you do not understand.
Page 11,001 to Page 43,000 - The 13th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was the 11th edition regarded as the finest, plus three supplements. It contains the total of mankind’s knowledge as of the year 01911, or 8 years after the first mechanical airplane was invented in 01903. It also contains those three supplements making it current as of 01926.
Page 43,001 to 68,000 - The Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge
Page 68,001 to 70,000 – The King James Version of the Holy Bible
Page 70,001 to 71,000 – The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Page 71,001 to 100,000 – Everything you need to know to build a high powered microscope
Now, as to the third layer, that will contain all that we intend on preserving. Though the “how to” on the microscope will involve a good deal of information on fields like ore refining, metallurgy, smelting, tool and die making, machining, electronics and more.
How is 100,000 pages readable with a lens or series of lenses? We will deliberately determine the size of the page based on that. On a two inch disc, you might get 10,000 pages readable with a lens or series of lenses. Perhaps then the “page” size we choose will be 20 inches a side.
Make no mistake, this is going to be an expensive project. And also, there are other ways of going about this. Frankly, we debate sometimes as whether a third layer – with the massive additional expense and the necessity for the people of the future to have electron microscopes – is practical.
It may be – time will tell – that we only have two layers, and each large “page” will have 100,000 pages of data. Maybe. But we’ll probably do the third layer. Anything worth doing…and all that.
A Magic Vault
The Encyclopedia Foundation has to plan for every eventuality. Including some bizarre ones. For instance, one of sub-missions is to keep an eye on the state of space travel, and to make sure that any colony ship has some metal discs on them. Much like the Catholics did in the book “A Canticle for Leibowitz” just before some future atomic war.
But this is about a different eventuality, perhaps more likely.
The hypothetical year is 02711, 700 years from now. It has been 200 years since a terrorist released nanites that were designed to eat any unobtainium, which is what all the high tech stuff in the future is made out of! Kelvin of the Peorians (a small farming autarchy in Illinois) has travelled far in search of old style goods for trade. There were still caches of tools and such to be had, if one had wits, time and tools. Kelvin had all three.
He comes across a house, and one with an X with a bar over it! He has heard the tales of how the ancients, fearful that their wonders would be lost, made caches of knowledge and scattered them to the four winds. Could this be one of those places?
He enters, and sees that the house has been thoroughly looted…but the basement door is still closed! And what a door! Steel, like a Keepsaker’s vault! (Bank vaults storing currency were obsolete by 02147.) He could see the scratches and chisel marks of waves of looters, but it was unbreached.
Unfazed – he was the son of the Chief, and of no small amount of intelligence – he went to the bedroom. He saw the bed moved already, someone else had had his idea, but there was no trap door, and the hole previous scavengers had made in the wood only showed a criss cross of rebar over smooth metal.
Grinning with the knowledge that whatever was left was untouched by a dozen generations of scavengers, he treks back to his cart. He wheels it patiently back to the house, and making sure there’s nothing to indicate to wanderers that he’s inside, he starts to work.
At the vault door, he starts on the frame with his father’s torch. No small measure of his father’s authority rested on his absolute control of an enormous warehouse of tools and supplies that he inherited from his father. It had taken a lot of persuading to get him to loan an acetylene torch, but this would pay off big!
Seven hours later, Kelvin was able to pull the door away from the frame. He used a rope to do so, not wanting to push it in and disturb any goods. Climbing over the door, he entered, felt the floor give ever so slightly…and was surprised when it lit up! Soft light came from either side of door, enough to let him see a large chamber with a table in the middle with an odd box with a cone coming out of it.
On the right, another table, smaller, held a lantern. On the far wall was a safe box, from floor to ceiling and a man’s height wide. He examined the lights first, and found that they were glow sticks that had been crushed by a piece of metal attached so as to be thrust up when he stepped on the plate in the floor, just inside the door. Those would not last forever, and did not give enough light.
He wondered how he was going to get into the safe without damaging what was inside, and hoped he had enough acetylene left to do so. He doubted it. Nor was the safe small enough to move. There were strange markings on the walls everywhere, and on the safe, and on the tables. And squares of metal with more marks on them on either table.
He took out his tinder box and got the lantern lit, and received another surprise – an images of men appeared on the wall! It seemed to come from the lantern, the light went through some thick and curved piece of glass, and landed on the wall in the image of the same man, over and over. In the first he was bent over the box with the cone, holding the handle. The next one, he was still holding the handle but the handle was in a different position. The third, same, and another different position of the handle.
He looked, and there was a handle on the box. He eyed it warily, then held it, then tried to move it. He cranked it, let go, and promptly jumped in surprise again – for a voice was speaking to him now.
“Welcome to the Encyclopedia Foundation. This is a store house of knowledge on how to rebuild civilization. The round discs when placed on this box will make my voice come to instruct you. The instructional ones are on the side of the table with a picture of a horse on it. The ones where the picture of the dog is are the same thing, but in other languages.”
“Bienvenido a la Fundacion Enciclopedia…”
*ahem*
So you get the idea. The Encyclopedia Foundation must design their vault to cover all bases.
First, note how we are assuming that the Long Now Foundation will succeed in getting their "Ten Thousand Year" idea and symbol in the public's consciousness. The X with a bar over it is the symbol of a "myria" or "ten thousand". It's a symbol every long range foundation should use.
Do not assume you’ll have a power source that will long out last your disappearance. We may well have some lights that are solar powered in the vault, but how long these will last unattended…well, less than ten thousand years, that’s for sure! Not really sure that the glow sticks are all that viable either, but if they don’t work because too much time has gone by, then all the more reason for them to light the lantern.
You can also have those images that the lantern casts simply drawn on the wall. But we think that the lantern idea is kind of cool, and will sure make what they are seeing seem important! (And yes, it is possible to design a lantern to do that. If you don’t do this, at least have an ordinary lantern for light for them. And those pictures on the wall.)
Do not assume literacy. As this is the case, you will have to have your vault teach them to read. Which means they must first be interested in that. A phonograph can be hand powered. But they don’t know about phonographs, so you must show those pictures.
Once they hear the voice, they will be hooked. The introduction should be the opening paragraph in the five major languages of English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Arabic. Yes, have Spanish second if you are in North America. It’s the second most likely language of the listener.
You cannot say “on your left” or “on your right”. You don’t know which way he is facing, or even if he knows what “left” and “right” is. “The side with the picture of the horse” is safer. Or “mountains”. We’re still evaluating which pictures to demark left and right will be most easily known for the longest time. After all, by 02711 horses may have been extinct for 500 years.
Other aspects of design that the story of Kelvin didn’t get to was the various writings on the wall. They should be instructions on how to read. At least one wall. Pictures and normal print. As to those who speak the other languages, the records will direct them to metal plates that have the same learn to read instructions but in that language.
The safe should have writing on it. Principally instructions on how to get in. “The first number of the combination is what you get when you add 15 and 6. If you do not know this, find the round disc with the picture of trees on it, place it on the box with the cone and it will tell you.” Hence they will learn addition. “The second number is what you get when you multiply 4 times 6. If you do not know this, find the round disc with the picture of people on it, place it on the box with the cone and it will tell you.” Etc.
While the little story was too short of a detailed description of the vault, one would have other things in it. A box full of metal pages, for instance. Ones that duplicate everything to be found in the vault. This will be the “plate holder” box another article mentioned, but it will hold more than one metal page of data.
Another box filled with records. Records, if you are too young to remember, do not play a notably long time. You will need a lot of them. In theory, they may be all the illiterate man has to draw on. The focus of these will be to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. In all those languages. Records can be made to last a very long period of time, however they should be special records, specially made. To be more durable, and if possible, to play longer. Attention will have to be given to the phonograph. It will need to be specially made, extra durable, and made for the specific special records you make.
Some mechanical items and tools should be there. Too pique interest, if nothing else.
Don't forget a box of lenses. Securely stored to not be damaged by earthquakes. Along with instructions as to there use. By phonograph and picture. More on that in another article.
One should also have pictures. Engravings on metal can be quite artistic. Show things. Either things you want them to do, or in other cases, simply pictures to pique their interest. Like a photo quality etching of airplanes over a city. Or a rocket landing on the moon, Earth in the background.
The metal pages themselves should be artistic, and designed to attract interest. More on that in another article.
This is by no means complete – or necessarily the best. We are working towards this, it is not a finished plan. Our interactions with other like minded fellow travelers has already helped us, and will continue to. The Encyclopedia Foundation welcomes any thoughts, criticisms or suggestions.
But this is about a different eventuality, perhaps more likely.
The hypothetical year is 02711, 700 years from now. It has been 200 years since a terrorist released nanites that were designed to eat any unobtainium, which is what all the high tech stuff in the future is made out of! Kelvin of the Peorians (a small farming autarchy in Illinois) has travelled far in search of old style goods for trade. There were still caches of tools and such to be had, if one had wits, time and tools. Kelvin had all three.
He comes across a house, and one with an X with a bar over it! He has heard the tales of how the ancients, fearful that their wonders would be lost, made caches of knowledge and scattered them to the four winds. Could this be one of those places?
He enters, and sees that the house has been thoroughly looted…but the basement door is still closed! And what a door! Steel, like a Keepsaker’s vault! (Bank vaults storing currency were obsolete by 02147.) He could see the scratches and chisel marks of waves of looters, but it was unbreached.
Unfazed – he was the son of the Chief, and of no small amount of intelligence – he went to the bedroom. He saw the bed moved already, someone else had had his idea, but there was no trap door, and the hole previous scavengers had made in the wood only showed a criss cross of rebar over smooth metal.
Grinning with the knowledge that whatever was left was untouched by a dozen generations of scavengers, he treks back to his cart. He wheels it patiently back to the house, and making sure there’s nothing to indicate to wanderers that he’s inside, he starts to work.
At the vault door, he starts on the frame with his father’s torch. No small measure of his father’s authority rested on his absolute control of an enormous warehouse of tools and supplies that he inherited from his father. It had taken a lot of persuading to get him to loan an acetylene torch, but this would pay off big!
Seven hours later, Kelvin was able to pull the door away from the frame. He used a rope to do so, not wanting to push it in and disturb any goods. Climbing over the door, he entered, felt the floor give ever so slightly…and was surprised when it lit up! Soft light came from either side of door, enough to let him see a large chamber with a table in the middle with an odd box with a cone coming out of it.
On the right, another table, smaller, held a lantern. On the far wall was a safe box, from floor to ceiling and a man’s height wide. He examined the lights first, and found that they were glow sticks that had been crushed by a piece of metal attached so as to be thrust up when he stepped on the plate in the floor, just inside the door. Those would not last forever, and did not give enough light.
He wondered how he was going to get into the safe without damaging what was inside, and hoped he had enough acetylene left to do so. He doubted it. Nor was the safe small enough to move. There were strange markings on the walls everywhere, and on the safe, and on the tables. And squares of metal with more marks on them on either table.
He took out his tinder box and got the lantern lit, and received another surprise – an images of men appeared on the wall! It seemed to come from the lantern, the light went through some thick and curved piece of glass, and landed on the wall in the image of the same man, over and over. In the first he was bent over the box with the cone, holding the handle. The next one, he was still holding the handle but the handle was in a different position. The third, same, and another different position of the handle.
He looked, and there was a handle on the box. He eyed it warily, then held it, then tried to move it. He cranked it, let go, and promptly jumped in surprise again – for a voice was speaking to him now.
“Welcome to the Encyclopedia Foundation. This is a store house of knowledge on how to rebuild civilization. The round discs when placed on this box will make my voice come to instruct you. The instructional ones are on the side of the table with a picture of a horse on it. The ones where the picture of the dog is are the same thing, but in other languages.”
“Bienvenido a la Fundacion Enciclopedia…”
*ahem*
So you get the idea. The Encyclopedia Foundation must design their vault to cover all bases.
First, note how we are assuming that the Long Now Foundation will succeed in getting their "Ten Thousand Year" idea and symbol in the public's consciousness. The X with a bar over it is the symbol of a "myria" or "ten thousand". It's a symbol every long range foundation should use.
Do not assume you’ll have a power source that will long out last your disappearance. We may well have some lights that are solar powered in the vault, but how long these will last unattended…well, less than ten thousand years, that’s for sure! Not really sure that the glow sticks are all that viable either, but if they don’t work because too much time has gone by, then all the more reason for them to light the lantern.
You can also have those images that the lantern casts simply drawn on the wall. But we think that the lantern idea is kind of cool, and will sure make what they are seeing seem important! (And yes, it is possible to design a lantern to do that. If you don’t do this, at least have an ordinary lantern for light for them. And those pictures on the wall.)
Do not assume literacy. As this is the case, you will have to have your vault teach them to read. Which means they must first be interested in that. A phonograph can be hand powered. But they don’t know about phonographs, so you must show those pictures.
Once they hear the voice, they will be hooked. The introduction should be the opening paragraph in the five major languages of English, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Arabic. Yes, have Spanish second if you are in North America. It’s the second most likely language of the listener.
You cannot say “on your left” or “on your right”. You don’t know which way he is facing, or even if he knows what “left” and “right” is. “The side with the picture of the horse” is safer. Or “mountains”. We’re still evaluating which pictures to demark left and right will be most easily known for the longest time. After all, by 02711 horses may have been extinct for 500 years.
Other aspects of design that the story of Kelvin didn’t get to was the various writings on the wall. They should be instructions on how to read. At least one wall. Pictures and normal print. As to those who speak the other languages, the records will direct them to metal plates that have the same learn to read instructions but in that language.
The safe should have writing on it. Principally instructions on how to get in. “The first number of the combination is what you get when you add 15 and 6. If you do not know this, find the round disc with the picture of trees on it, place it on the box with the cone and it will tell you.” Hence they will learn addition. “The second number is what you get when you multiply 4 times 6. If you do not know this, find the round disc with the picture of people on it, place it on the box with the cone and it will tell you.” Etc.
While the little story was too short of a detailed description of the vault, one would have other things in it. A box full of metal pages, for instance. Ones that duplicate everything to be found in the vault. This will be the “plate holder” box another article mentioned, but it will hold more than one metal page of data.
Another box filled with records. Records, if you are too young to remember, do not play a notably long time. You will need a lot of them. In theory, they may be all the illiterate man has to draw on. The focus of these will be to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. In all those languages. Records can be made to last a very long period of time, however they should be special records, specially made. To be more durable, and if possible, to play longer. Attention will have to be given to the phonograph. It will need to be specially made, extra durable, and made for the specific special records you make.
Some mechanical items and tools should be there. Too pique interest, if nothing else.
Don't forget a box of lenses. Securely stored to not be damaged by earthquakes. Along with instructions as to there use. By phonograph and picture. More on that in another article.
One should also have pictures. Engravings on metal can be quite artistic. Show things. Either things you want them to do, or in other cases, simply pictures to pique their interest. Like a photo quality etching of airplanes over a city. Or a rocket landing on the moon, Earth in the background.
The metal pages themselves should be artistic, and designed to attract interest. More on that in another article.
This is by no means complete – or necessarily the best. We are working towards this, it is not a finished plan. Our interactions with other like minded fellow travelers has already helped us, and will continue to. The Encyclopedia Foundation welcomes any thoughts, criticisms or suggestions.
Vault Security
At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we find that mundane concerns are almost the entirety of planning. It is pleasant to contemplate metal plates with all the information we’d like transcribed on to it, but there are always other concerns. Equally important, if less glamorous.
The vault is one of them.
How secure is secure enough? One can be too secure, after all. For instance, one could find a solid piece of granite still in a mountain, carefully drill a hole in it, insert the plates, and fill in the hole. All done. And it’s unlikely anyone will ever see it again. That would count as “too secure”.
On the other hand, you could leave them on the desk in the office of the Encyclopedia Foundation. Go out for lunch, come back and you find they’re gone. Not secure enough.
To end the suspense, what will actually happen will be a variety of things. There will be more than one copy. Copies of some metal plates will be sent to a variety of places where they’ll do the most good. They have their own security at various Catholic and Latter Day Saint churches, and it can be imagined that the Long Now Foundation will probably have a secure facility for books at some point. They can each have copies.
As to our own vault, it will probably be a “defense in depth”, so to speak. Firstly, it will be in a modest house. No future “Road Warriors” will see anything different about the house. Nothing to scream out “loot me”. Not being noticed is always the best defense.
Next, the basement itself will be the Vault. That will be needful anyway, as there is more to preserving knowledge than having metal plates. There must be instructions on how to use those plates, or how to understand them if one can’t read or speak the language. The large basement vault can contain things to make this easier. Such as a lantern and a phonograph player, but that’s another article.
A “vault” is a slippery word. And can mean more than you think. The basement will be a vault, that’s a larger than usual form of “vault”. But there are smaller than usual kinds that we’ll have. Like the plate holder.
Plate holder? Yes. Imagine you have a metal plate. What are you going to do with it? If it’s laying outside, the elements will not hurt the metal, but may damage the engravings. If it’s inside, that process is slowed, but not entirely stopped. Houses have fluctuating temperatures and moisture levels.
Your plate needs to be held, probably by a metal frame. That way the plate itself never comes into contact with another surface. It should be of a metal that is not going to oxidize, but if you like, for additional safety, you can store it in a box that is sealed and filled with nitrogen. (Don’t try for a vacuum, that will only make it more probable that the box will leak. Nitrogen at normal atmospheric pressure for your area.)
Have the “plate in a frame” then secured inside that box. Not just loose. You can fix it solidly within the box by having the box carefully designed. It should have a metal groove to allow you to put the frame in as if you were putting a pizza in an oven. Then when sealed, it won’t be jostled around in that box, such as if there is an earthquake, tornado or explosion.
Metal plate in frame, frame in grooved box, box filled with nitrogen and sealed (welded) shut. Now that box is a vault of sorts. Which will be stored in a more conventional vault. Which itself will be in the “vault” of your basement. The basement being in your unremarkable and non-loot worthy house. In a town unlikely to be a nuclear target. Defense in depth.
How many copies of the same thing in the same “Vault” of your basement? Perhaps three. One to be taken at once, one in a safe, and one in a well.
A well? Yes. High levels of heat can warp metal. The metal will then exist, but the engravings may be lost. That plate holding box (one of them) should be in water. Have a well dug in your basement, that will be handy anyway, and place it in there. Be sure and have it connected to a durable metal chain for extraction. “Lead” should not be your choice of metal, here!
Taken at once? Of course. Why would we care if a “Road Warrior” type took a copy? If he finds it, he won’t look further. So there’s that. Also, what is he going to do with it? Only one of two things – use it himself, or sell or trade it to another who will use it. In either case, it will get used. Which is the point. Remember our own civilization was not started by saints. So we can’t judge any future post-apocalyptic “Road Warrior”.
One in a safe? Sure. But we’ll have the combination on the front, that can be opened if someone has a certain degree of education. And it will be a low set bar, on that. Larry Niven and JerryPournelle wrote a brilliant book called “The Mote In God’s Eye” and in it, an alien race had a museum that could only be accessed by dialing in the positions of the planets in their system. We think that sets the bar a bit too high. On the other hand, we don’t necessarily want that “Road Warrior” taking all copies. It may be a relatively easy (for us) equation that gives the combination. Or a question with a numerical answer that implies a certain level of sophistication already.
As to other security features of the vault system, we’ll share information about the proposed security procedures with any who like, but aren’t going to post the specifics. (But note to “mavericks”, security means preventing pre-mature access, not hurting people. Active defense is pointless and immoral, the goal is to educate, even if it is a “Road Warrior” type who comes in.)
The vault is one of them.
How secure is secure enough? One can be too secure, after all. For instance, one could find a solid piece of granite still in a mountain, carefully drill a hole in it, insert the plates, and fill in the hole. All done. And it’s unlikely anyone will ever see it again. That would count as “too secure”.
On the other hand, you could leave them on the desk in the office of the Encyclopedia Foundation. Go out for lunch, come back and you find they’re gone. Not secure enough.
To end the suspense, what will actually happen will be a variety of things. There will be more than one copy. Copies of some metal plates will be sent to a variety of places where they’ll do the most good. They have their own security at various Catholic and Latter Day Saint churches, and it can be imagined that the Long Now Foundation will probably have a secure facility for books at some point. They can each have copies.
As to our own vault, it will probably be a “defense in depth”, so to speak. Firstly, it will be in a modest house. No future “Road Warriors” will see anything different about the house. Nothing to scream out “loot me”. Not being noticed is always the best defense.
Next, the basement itself will be the Vault. That will be needful anyway, as there is more to preserving knowledge than having metal plates. There must be instructions on how to use those plates, or how to understand them if one can’t read or speak the language. The large basement vault can contain things to make this easier. Such as a lantern and a phonograph player, but that’s another article.
A “vault” is a slippery word. And can mean more than you think. The basement will be a vault, that’s a larger than usual form of “vault”. But there are smaller than usual kinds that we’ll have. Like the plate holder.
Plate holder? Yes. Imagine you have a metal plate. What are you going to do with it? If it’s laying outside, the elements will not hurt the metal, but may damage the engravings. If it’s inside, that process is slowed, but not entirely stopped. Houses have fluctuating temperatures and moisture levels.
Your plate needs to be held, probably by a metal frame. That way the plate itself never comes into contact with another surface. It should be of a metal that is not going to oxidize, but if you like, for additional safety, you can store it in a box that is sealed and filled with nitrogen. (Don’t try for a vacuum, that will only make it more probable that the box will leak. Nitrogen at normal atmospheric pressure for your area.)
Have the “plate in a frame” then secured inside that box. Not just loose. You can fix it solidly within the box by having the box carefully designed. It should have a metal groove to allow you to put the frame in as if you were putting a pizza in an oven. Then when sealed, it won’t be jostled around in that box, such as if there is an earthquake, tornado or explosion.
Metal plate in frame, frame in grooved box, box filled with nitrogen and sealed (welded) shut. Now that box is a vault of sorts. Which will be stored in a more conventional vault. Which itself will be in the “vault” of your basement. The basement being in your unremarkable and non-loot worthy house. In a town unlikely to be a nuclear target. Defense in depth.
How many copies of the same thing in the same “Vault” of your basement? Perhaps three. One to be taken at once, one in a safe, and one in a well.
A well? Yes. High levels of heat can warp metal. The metal will then exist, but the engravings may be lost. That plate holding box (one of them) should be in water. Have a well dug in your basement, that will be handy anyway, and place it in there. Be sure and have it connected to a durable metal chain for extraction. “Lead” should not be your choice of metal, here!
Taken at once? Of course. Why would we care if a “Road Warrior” type took a copy? If he finds it, he won’t look further. So there’s that. Also, what is he going to do with it? Only one of two things – use it himself, or sell or trade it to another who will use it. In either case, it will get used. Which is the point. Remember our own civilization was not started by saints. So we can’t judge any future post-apocalyptic “Road Warrior”.
One in a safe? Sure. But we’ll have the combination on the front, that can be opened if someone has a certain degree of education. And it will be a low set bar, on that. Larry Niven and JerryPournelle wrote a brilliant book called “The Mote In God’s Eye” and in it, an alien race had a museum that could only be accessed by dialing in the positions of the planets in their system. We think that sets the bar a bit too high. On the other hand, we don’t necessarily want that “Road Warrior” taking all copies. It may be a relatively easy (for us) equation that gives the combination. Or a question with a numerical answer that implies a certain level of sophistication already.
As to other security features of the vault system, we’ll share information about the proposed security procedures with any who like, but aren’t going to post the specifics. (But note to “mavericks”, security means preventing pre-mature access, not hurting people. Active defense is pointless and immoral, the goal is to educate, even if it is a “Road Warrior” type who comes in.)
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
The Peter Principle
The Encyclopedia Foundation is, by it’s a nature, an organization very familiar with science fiction stories. In one brilliant short story – and later novel, play and movie– by Daniel Keyes called “Flowers for Algernon” a retarded man yearned to be “normal”. Speaking in the language of “Brave New World”, Charlie Gordon was a “Delta”, or high functioning retarded person, who wanted to be a what we would think of as a “Gamma” (average) or perhaps “Beta”, (above average).
He receives an operation that makes him an “Alpha” (genius) and the book is simply a detailing – shown by his diary – of his journey from being retarded, to normal, to genius…and back down again when the operation turned out not to be permanent.
Perhaps the most touching aspect of the story was his intense desire to “lern to red and rit”, as he put it. His desire to be accepted as normal he had turned into a driving urge to read and write. He thought that such was the key to being normal.
Normal people can be like Charlie. In the sense of being so close to the next mental level that they can really yearn for it, even if it is out of their reach. A Gamma can wish to be a Beta or a Beta an Alpha. It is only usually one level up aspired to – the level that you are almost, but not quite, at.
Organizations can share the same desire. The New Religious Movement that wishes to leave “cult” status and be a “church”. Or the off brand church wishing to be a Mainstream Church. A small company wishing to be a regional chain. Or a regional chain wishing to be a national conglomerate. Or that wishing to be an international mega-corp.
As to the Charlies who wish to read, or the Betas who wish to be Alphas, two things to note are that one, it can help them at least strive to be as good as they can be. But that, two, they are what they are, and should learn to live with it.
In the case of churches, businesses, or even non-profits like the Encyclopedia Foundation, it is different. One, they actually can grow and change to the next level. But two, it might be well not to – at least not fast.
An organization that finds itself too big too fast, or operating out of the depth of its board member’s abilities, can be in trouble. There are problems associated with size that they may not be equipped for. Bill Gates was not the only person who could play well with computers. But of thousands who were at the time, he was one of the few with the know-how to grow. Others had know -how – just not that specific kind. They all failed. They reached…they rose up a bit…and they fell back down.
You’ve seen movies of this phenomena. Where when the little church becomes a movement, the message gets lost, the greedy are attracted to the size of the donations collected, schisms form. Or the business that while in one town was fine, goes national and is then attacked by older, bigger, more entrenched and very intolerant corporations.
But usually, it is the Peter Principle that brings them down. Not only do employees get promoted to their own level of incompetence, but corporations, churches and charities do as well. The guy who can minister to a local flock is ill suited to for virtual “popehood”. The guy who can run a shop cannot oversee a coast to coast franchise system. The boards of either – usually friends and wives and perhaps a local bigwig or two – are no help in the major leagues.
Trouble is, they are doing well, so they keep growing because they are doing well. And who can argue with growth?
Back to Charlie Gordon, there was a woman at the Bakery he worked at who did argue. And told him that he shouldn’t have had the operation. Perhaps that goes too far the other extreme, but it is undeniable that Charlie probably would have been happier if no one had operated on him.
For us here at the Encyclopedia Foundation, we take a different message. Growth is good. Aspiring to be better, larger, more well off, is good. But limits should be known in advance. One should – as an individual or corporation or church or charity – “know one’s place”.
In Dr. Asimov’s “Foundation Series”, the Encyclopedia Foundation there did not actually know their place. They saw the Second Foundation as something to be avoided or defeated, not as the leaders they actually were. The Encyclopedia Foundation forgot that their job was specific, and it was subordinate to the over-arching purposes of the Second Foundation. In “Foundation’s Edge”, they tried to take over, and were utterly defeated.
We take this is a strong tip that modesty is a good thing. The Encyclopedia Foundation that we have is a small foundation, doing specific things. We have no rich people on our Board. Our Board is not a “who’s who”, even locally. Frankly, it probably never will be. We aren’t actually aspiring to be a well off corporation. There are inherent problems in that, not the least of which none of us are businessmen. If one isn’t good at becoming personally rich, one should not think themselves qualified to oversee riches!
More to the point though, we are about stability. We only wish to rise to each new level in an entirely safe fashion. So that if we ever find we are at our own “Peter Principle”, we can drop back to the level we just left, safely and securely. And re-trench.
This allows for a much slower growth, but a much surer growth. By the time we are big enough to need people with much more business sense, that will be the time they are available. We focus on the fact that we are to last ten thousand years, so we have time.
It is also our beliefs that “bigness” is not always good. Wealth can confer security. But past a certain point, it only attracts those who wish to deprive you of it, and thus is not a help, but a harm to you. That applies personally, and to corporate entities.
Our ideal is to be self-sufficient. Large enough to be financially secure, to be able to achieve our goals, but not so large that we start attracting people who wish board membership simply for desiring say over vast amounts of funds. Or managers or workers who are paycheck performers.
Which is why we pay no salaries at all. Not to the Board, not to the officers (who are the same as the board) and not to any workers (who again, are the same as the board!).
We picture a monastery-style of size and stability and security. Something that for the next ten thousand years does not depend on an Alpha genius to run it – such may not always be around. Like for instance, right now! We wish something that we – average Gammas and Betas – can run appropriately, safely and securely. Something that any average person can take the helm of later, without running it into the ground. At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we believe that ultimately this will pay off.
In the long run!
He receives an operation that makes him an “Alpha” (genius) and the book is simply a detailing – shown by his diary – of his journey from being retarded, to normal, to genius…and back down again when the operation turned out not to be permanent.
Perhaps the most touching aspect of the story was his intense desire to “lern to red and rit”, as he put it. His desire to be accepted as normal he had turned into a driving urge to read and write. He thought that such was the key to being normal.
Normal people can be like Charlie. In the sense of being so close to the next mental level that they can really yearn for it, even if it is out of their reach. A Gamma can wish to be a Beta or a Beta an Alpha. It is only usually one level up aspired to – the level that you are almost, but not quite, at.
Organizations can share the same desire. The New Religious Movement that wishes to leave “cult” status and be a “church”. Or the off brand church wishing to be a Mainstream Church. A small company wishing to be a regional chain. Or a regional chain wishing to be a national conglomerate. Or that wishing to be an international mega-corp.
As to the Charlies who wish to read, or the Betas who wish to be Alphas, two things to note are that one, it can help them at least strive to be as good as they can be. But that, two, they are what they are, and should learn to live with it.
In the case of churches, businesses, or even non-profits like the Encyclopedia Foundation, it is different. One, they actually can grow and change to the next level. But two, it might be well not to – at least not fast.
An organization that finds itself too big too fast, or operating out of the depth of its board member’s abilities, can be in trouble. There are problems associated with size that they may not be equipped for. Bill Gates was not the only person who could play well with computers. But of thousands who were at the time, he was one of the few with the know-how to grow. Others had know -how – just not that specific kind. They all failed. They reached…they rose up a bit…and they fell back down.
You’ve seen movies of this phenomena. Where when the little church becomes a movement, the message gets lost, the greedy are attracted to the size of the donations collected, schisms form. Or the business that while in one town was fine, goes national and is then attacked by older, bigger, more entrenched and very intolerant corporations.
But usually, it is the Peter Principle that brings them down. Not only do employees get promoted to their own level of incompetence, but corporations, churches and charities do as well. The guy who can minister to a local flock is ill suited to for virtual “popehood”. The guy who can run a shop cannot oversee a coast to coast franchise system. The boards of either – usually friends and wives and perhaps a local bigwig or two – are no help in the major leagues.
Trouble is, they are doing well, so they keep growing because they are doing well. And who can argue with growth?
Back to Charlie Gordon, there was a woman at the Bakery he worked at who did argue. And told him that he shouldn’t have had the operation. Perhaps that goes too far the other extreme, but it is undeniable that Charlie probably would have been happier if no one had operated on him.
For us here at the Encyclopedia Foundation, we take a different message. Growth is good. Aspiring to be better, larger, more well off, is good. But limits should be known in advance. One should – as an individual or corporation or church or charity – “know one’s place”.
In Dr. Asimov’s “Foundation Series”, the Encyclopedia Foundation there did not actually know their place. They saw the Second Foundation as something to be avoided or defeated, not as the leaders they actually were. The Encyclopedia Foundation forgot that their job was specific, and it was subordinate to the over-arching purposes of the Second Foundation. In “Foundation’s Edge”, they tried to take over, and were utterly defeated.
We take this is a strong tip that modesty is a good thing. The Encyclopedia Foundation that we have is a small foundation, doing specific things. We have no rich people on our Board. Our Board is not a “who’s who”, even locally. Frankly, it probably never will be. We aren’t actually aspiring to be a well off corporation. There are inherent problems in that, not the least of which none of us are businessmen. If one isn’t good at becoming personally rich, one should not think themselves qualified to oversee riches!
More to the point though, we are about stability. We only wish to rise to each new level in an entirely safe fashion. So that if we ever find we are at our own “Peter Principle”, we can drop back to the level we just left, safely and securely. And re-trench.
This allows for a much slower growth, but a much surer growth. By the time we are big enough to need people with much more business sense, that will be the time they are available. We focus on the fact that we are to last ten thousand years, so we have time.
It is also our beliefs that “bigness” is not always good. Wealth can confer security. But past a certain point, it only attracts those who wish to deprive you of it, and thus is not a help, but a harm to you. That applies personally, and to corporate entities.
Our ideal is to be self-sufficient. Large enough to be financially secure, to be able to achieve our goals, but not so large that we start attracting people who wish board membership simply for desiring say over vast amounts of funds. Or managers or workers who are paycheck performers.
Which is why we pay no salaries at all. Not to the Board, not to the officers (who are the same as the board) and not to any workers (who again, are the same as the board!).
We picture a monastery-style of size and stability and security. Something that for the next ten thousand years does not depend on an Alpha genius to run it – such may not always be around. Like for instance, right now! We wish something that we – average Gammas and Betas – can run appropriately, safely and securely. Something that any average person can take the helm of later, without running it into the ground. At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we believe that ultimately this will pay off.
In the long run!
Beyond Thunderdome
The Encyclopedia Foundation concerns itself with having all the knowledge of mankind, preserved for future need, in case civilization collapses. There are other reasons why such knowledge in such form would have benefit, but that is a large one.
It has been noticed by us that a large subset of people, principally in the Western World, have a fascination with “end times” or an “apocalypse” or some other type of societal collapse. It can be as little as a penchant for apocalyptic movies from “The Day After” to “28 Days Later” or it can become a hobby like “survivalism” (though “preparedness” is the kind word).
Most of those involved in “Preparedness” do not look far ahead, though they think they do. They look ahead to a collapse (or Zombie Apocalypse!) and they think that’s taking the long view, but they don’t look past their survival of it.
Consider a Survivalist. He has every bit of camping gear you can think of. Food stores for a year. Tools and fishing gear and guns and bow and arrows for when the bullets run out. He usually has at least a few books, but ones like “Improvised traps” or “Bow Hunting made EZ” (made up titles) or if he’s a bit more on the ball, “Five Acres and Independence” and stuff about animal husbandry, agriculture and canning.
All well and good. But in reading a blog article at the Long Now Foundation’s website, I had to smile when I saw that someone had wrote that these people almost seem to look forward to an apocalypse, like being “Mad Max” would be fun! I smiled because I know just what they mean!
Truth is, it would not be fun, it would be horrific. And truth is, pretty much any person you know who is into “Survivalism” or “Preparedness” is not going to have an easy time of it. Nor will his children. And definitely not his grandchildren.
Let us take the best case. The survivalist does not get killed in the initial catastrophe (nuclear war, massive plague, rise of the undead) and further, does not have his house over run and looted by the masses who failed to prepare, but are armed and desperate.
And let us further assume that he has seeds to plant, bows to hunt with, and that even more extraordinarily, he can actually do these things. Plant a crop. Raise cattle or even rabbits. And further, he can defend it against additional marauders that would still be out there.
So he is on a self-sufficient farm with his family. Now what?
Yeah, that’s right. Now what? Is that it? “One day son, you too will get to work all day in the fields, never knowing when you’ll be shot and ate, and we’ll find you a woman (who’s not a mutant!) so you can raise kids with no hopes and no future, too!”
For what they all forget is while hunting and gathering was probably a real blast when it was all we knew, and while plowing like a peasant with a yoke on your wife was probably something they were used to back in the day (well, the men got used to it!), most all thinking people wish a bit more. And 100% of the women do, as technology is the only reason they became free. And everyone would wish it much more if they ever were in a position to not have it!
No book or book set is going to get civilization back on track instantly. But it could manage a good start even in the first person’s lifetime, especially before all the leftover machines rust out. At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we are intending on preserving just those books. Books that would allow a future rebuilding, so that the survivalist’s great grandchildren have a better chance of visiting the moon, than they do of worshipping it!
It has been noticed by us that a large subset of people, principally in the Western World, have a fascination with “end times” or an “apocalypse” or some other type of societal collapse. It can be as little as a penchant for apocalyptic movies from “The Day After” to “28 Days Later” or it can become a hobby like “survivalism” (though “preparedness” is the kind word).
Most of those involved in “Preparedness” do not look far ahead, though they think they do. They look ahead to a collapse (or Zombie Apocalypse!) and they think that’s taking the long view, but they don’t look past their survival of it.
Consider a Survivalist. He has every bit of camping gear you can think of. Food stores for a year. Tools and fishing gear and guns and bow and arrows for when the bullets run out. He usually has at least a few books, but ones like “Improvised traps” or “Bow Hunting made EZ” (made up titles) or if he’s a bit more on the ball, “Five Acres and Independence” and stuff about animal husbandry, agriculture and canning.
All well and good. But in reading a blog article at the Long Now Foundation’s website, I had to smile when I saw that someone had wrote that these people almost seem to look forward to an apocalypse, like being “Mad Max” would be fun! I smiled because I know just what they mean!
Truth is, it would not be fun, it would be horrific. And truth is, pretty much any person you know who is into “Survivalism” or “Preparedness” is not going to have an easy time of it. Nor will his children. And definitely not his grandchildren.
Let us take the best case. The survivalist does not get killed in the initial catastrophe (nuclear war, massive plague, rise of the undead) and further, does not have his house over run and looted by the masses who failed to prepare, but are armed and desperate.
And let us further assume that he has seeds to plant, bows to hunt with, and that even more extraordinarily, he can actually do these things. Plant a crop. Raise cattle or even rabbits. And further, he can defend it against additional marauders that would still be out there.
So he is on a self-sufficient farm with his family. Now what?
Yeah, that’s right. Now what? Is that it? “One day son, you too will get to work all day in the fields, never knowing when you’ll be shot and ate, and we’ll find you a woman (who’s not a mutant!) so you can raise kids with no hopes and no future, too!”
For what they all forget is while hunting and gathering was probably a real blast when it was all we knew, and while plowing like a peasant with a yoke on your wife was probably something they were used to back in the day (well, the men got used to it!), most all thinking people wish a bit more. And 100% of the women do, as technology is the only reason they became free. And everyone would wish it much more if they ever were in a position to not have it!
No book or book set is going to get civilization back on track instantly. But it could manage a good start even in the first person’s lifetime, especially before all the leftover machines rust out. At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we are intending on preserving just those books. Books that would allow a future rebuilding, so that the survivalist’s great grandchildren have a better chance of visiting the moon, than they do of worshipping it!
Mission to Myridia
The Encyclopedia Foundation in Dr. Asimov’s “Foundation Series” at one point used religion as a means of protecting Terminus and spreading technology to planets that had reverted to barbarism. In other articles it’s been pointed out that those who worked for this church must have been sincere, even if the not all the leadership was.
While not a huge fan of “fan fiction”, it would be nice to have some stories as to some of the missionary’s adventures. It seems unlikely that the church died, after all, it was drawing upon the resources of at least four stellar Kingdoms, even if the Encyclopedia Foundation of Terminus cut them off from support. And it seems unlikely Terminus would sever all ties. A “distancing” at the most.
For instance, the Mayor is probably still the Primate of the Church, but just in the way that the Queen of England is over the Anglican church.
What if we were to imagine a hypothetical planet in Dr. Asimov’s fictional Foundation universe, that had slipped into barbarism and was on the edge of the Foundation’s expansion? What would the lives of those missionaries be like?
Consider, they come from a highly developed technological world and are now on a primitive backwater like Rossem. Let us call this fiction of a fiction “Myridia”. The Myridians only knew of the Galactic Empire, in fact, that’s all they knew for 20,000 years. They didn’t even actually “break away”, they were just one of millions of worlds that the Empire left behind as it was shrinking.
One could have fun of endlessly speculating on what the world would be like. We could imagine simply another Rossem, cold, bleak and dreary, the populace little more than peasants. Or, we could imagine that it was a world of gleaming cities and monorail trains and supersonic jets. After all, we on Earth do not need a Galactic Empire to have such things. Asimov’s “barbarism” as he defined it in the books was going back to “coal and oil”, not “wood and dung”.
So you are Foundation Missionary, newly assigned Myridia. You arrive alone – there are too many worlds to spare more than one missionary per – and meet with the local officials. They are skeptical, but you do have trade goods, and as all you are asking is to set up a small church (base camp) and have free access to come and go, they aren’t kicking up too much of a fuss. Not after some handy tech gadgets are gifted to them, anyway!
Now, there you are, in a city of 1,000,000 people, and a world to convert. What do you do?
This goes back to the sincerity of the Priests. They have lives to live, they are not going to spend it on something they themselves believe to be false, cut off from all previous family and friends. The missionary would do then what any would do, and start to proselytize.
It would not be simply with words. Like any other missionary, he would be building a “church” or “monastery”. A self-sufficient place where he and the new members could discuss and study Seldon’s Plan in peace, freed of worldly concerns.
Sounds nice. So how do you do that? Fortunately, it’s been done before. The monasteries of our own Middle Ages were primarily a group of Monks working on transcribing the Bible and other Holy writings, making sure they were not lost. They supported themselves in three notable ways.
One, they could sell some of those books, as such were highly prized and very, very valuable. Being hand wrote.
Two, they could grow a lot of their own food, and their structures did not have gas or electricity, and depended on a well. So little overhead, especially as even ancient governments rarely taxed a church.
Three, they could help others.
That third one is what really kept them going. Of course, they wanted to help others because it is the right thing to do, but such programs as they had for feeding and sheltering those in need assisted greatly. It kept them in good with the governments of the time, who were unable to deal with such poverty. It made them generally immune to conquerors as such wanted an agency to deal with current refugees – and future workers.
And it brought in a revenue stream from those in the area who had it in their hearts to give. They were a clearinghouse of goodwill, of a sort.
Of course, the fourth, and actually greatest way in which they secured self-sufficiency was “time”. As they were always there, they were always engaged in “capital accumulation”. Each new thing built or bought was always “theirs”. It belonged to the monastery, so could not be frittered away.
Each of them would die eventually, but that which they spent their lives working on would only continue to grow. Until you have our modern times where some religions are so old that even their “poor” congregations of but thirty people have a giant million dollar cathedral.
These are lessons that the Encyclopedia Foundation here on Earth takes to heart. While we are aware of some long term Foundations that specifically shun religion, we believe that the practices of religion may be of aid in endeavors that are to last thousands of years.
There are many lessons from churches, but consider these two: 1. Your organization must specifically benefit those contributing to it. 2. Helping others is a “business” that never goes bankrupt.
We believe then that the missionaries of the Encyclopedia Foundation in Dr. Asimov’s series would have been about those two things. The setting up of not just temples, but monasteries and missions would have been a priority. It would be the only way that one man could hope to make inroads on an entire planet.
One need not be a religion to benefit from those insights.
While not a huge fan of “fan fiction”, it would be nice to have some stories as to some of the missionary’s adventures. It seems unlikely that the church died, after all, it was drawing upon the resources of at least four stellar Kingdoms, even if the Encyclopedia Foundation of Terminus cut them off from support. And it seems unlikely Terminus would sever all ties. A “distancing” at the most.
For instance, the Mayor is probably still the Primate of the Church, but just in the way that the Queen of England is over the Anglican church.
What if we were to imagine a hypothetical planet in Dr. Asimov’s fictional Foundation universe, that had slipped into barbarism and was on the edge of the Foundation’s expansion? What would the lives of those missionaries be like?
Consider, they come from a highly developed technological world and are now on a primitive backwater like Rossem. Let us call this fiction of a fiction “Myridia”. The Myridians only knew of the Galactic Empire, in fact, that’s all they knew for 20,000 years. They didn’t even actually “break away”, they were just one of millions of worlds that the Empire left behind as it was shrinking.
One could have fun of endlessly speculating on what the world would be like. We could imagine simply another Rossem, cold, bleak and dreary, the populace little more than peasants. Or, we could imagine that it was a world of gleaming cities and monorail trains and supersonic jets. After all, we on Earth do not need a Galactic Empire to have such things. Asimov’s “barbarism” as he defined it in the books was going back to “coal and oil”, not “wood and dung”.
So you are Foundation Missionary, newly assigned Myridia. You arrive alone – there are too many worlds to spare more than one missionary per – and meet with the local officials. They are skeptical, but you do have trade goods, and as all you are asking is to set up a small church (base camp) and have free access to come and go, they aren’t kicking up too much of a fuss. Not after some handy tech gadgets are gifted to them, anyway!
Now, there you are, in a city of 1,000,000 people, and a world to convert. What do you do?
This goes back to the sincerity of the Priests. They have lives to live, they are not going to spend it on something they themselves believe to be false, cut off from all previous family and friends. The missionary would do then what any would do, and start to proselytize.
It would not be simply with words. Like any other missionary, he would be building a “church” or “monastery”. A self-sufficient place where he and the new members could discuss and study Seldon’s Plan in peace, freed of worldly concerns.
Sounds nice. So how do you do that? Fortunately, it’s been done before. The monasteries of our own Middle Ages were primarily a group of Monks working on transcribing the Bible and other Holy writings, making sure they were not lost. They supported themselves in three notable ways.
One, they could sell some of those books, as such were highly prized and very, very valuable. Being hand wrote.
Two, they could grow a lot of their own food, and their structures did not have gas or electricity, and depended on a well. So little overhead, especially as even ancient governments rarely taxed a church.
Three, they could help others.
That third one is what really kept them going. Of course, they wanted to help others because it is the right thing to do, but such programs as they had for feeding and sheltering those in need assisted greatly. It kept them in good with the governments of the time, who were unable to deal with such poverty. It made them generally immune to conquerors as such wanted an agency to deal with current refugees – and future workers.
And it brought in a revenue stream from those in the area who had it in their hearts to give. They were a clearinghouse of goodwill, of a sort.
Of course, the fourth, and actually greatest way in which they secured self-sufficiency was “time”. As they were always there, they were always engaged in “capital accumulation”. Each new thing built or bought was always “theirs”. It belonged to the monastery, so could not be frittered away.
Each of them would die eventually, but that which they spent their lives working on would only continue to grow. Until you have our modern times where some religions are so old that even their “poor” congregations of but thirty people have a giant million dollar cathedral.
These are lessons that the Encyclopedia Foundation here on Earth takes to heart. While we are aware of some long term Foundations that specifically shun religion, we believe that the practices of religion may be of aid in endeavors that are to last thousands of years.
There are many lessons from churches, but consider these two: 1. Your organization must specifically benefit those contributing to it. 2. Helping others is a “business” that never goes bankrupt.
We believe then that the missionaries of the Encyclopedia Foundation in Dr. Asimov’s series would have been about those two things. The setting up of not just temples, but monasteries and missions would have been a priority. It would be the only way that one man could hope to make inroads on an entire planet.
One need not be a religion to benefit from those insights.
An Optics Craze?
In another article we spoke of how the Encyclopedia Foundation may end up using a metal disc the size of an 8 by 10 page for storing data. Not because it is the most efficient, but because it may be most efficient for our purposes. You see, by a process of “layering” we could have successively smaller print that would allow us to guide the reader further and further “in” to the page.
Eventually he would have it all. How does that work?
As mentioned, the page would have normal sized engravings on a checkered background. A reading of it – unaided as it would be regular sized font – would introduce the person to what we were attempting, and that there were further messages to be seen by the obtaining or crafting of a lens.
That lens would reveal that the checker board pattern was really tens of thousands of pages of information, and in between the pages would be even more (hundreds of thousands or millions) of pages of data that could only be read by an electron microscope. Instructions for which would be on the second layer viewable with a lens.
Now imagine 4,481 years in the future, or any other time in which civilization has collapsed, and people have lived primitively for a few generations, and they are starting to rebuild civilization and…they come across one of those “pages”!
Imagine the craze that they would have for the science of optics! Lens crafting and the making of ever more accurate and precise microscopes would be their foremost concern! That, and finding more “pages”. For you see, given the vast volumes of data that our culture has on each subject, even that “layering” trick might be good only for showing all the data on a single set of subjects. A “science” page or a “history” page or etc.
Such “pages” could be highly valued, though we will live to see them very cheap in our time, if all goes well.
Likewise in the future, such pages could be very handy for any interplanetary or inter-stellar colonizing efforts. Currently it costs about $20,000 per pound we put into space. So even if at a future point it is cheaper, one can see that one should economize in weight where one can!
Which is easier, a five story library on a ship? Or that the Captain’s Log be bound in two metal “pages”, each with each side covered in that layered fashion, thus giving the equivalent of four of those metal pages, with the tens of millions of pages of data that we know it can hold? And obviously an electron microscope would be easier to carry than the five story library!
You could go further in “weight saving”. In the wall of the ship there will inevitably need to be access ports to the inside of the walls. Such could be made to be a given size…oh, say 8 by 10!...and those be the pages! You could have all the information one could possibly wish micro-engraved into the hatches and covers of the walls of the ship! To be removed when it arrives at it’s destination.
Extra space? Zero. Extra weight? Less ! For it would have had a microscopic amount shaved off it in the engraving! The information would actually not cost any weight at all, and would actually REDUCE the weight of the ship, albeit by an infinitesimal amount!
Another use for such “pages”? We could have them on random spots throughout our own world here and now, if we can develop an iphone that could scan them and display (visually or audibly) what the information was. This would have an advantage over an electronic chip in that it could be made more resistant to the weather.
Get used to such “pages”. If you don’t live to see them , it’s a sure bet your grandchildren will!
Eventually he would have it all. How does that work?
As mentioned, the page would have normal sized engravings on a checkered background. A reading of it – unaided as it would be regular sized font – would introduce the person to what we were attempting, and that there were further messages to be seen by the obtaining or crafting of a lens.
That lens would reveal that the checker board pattern was really tens of thousands of pages of information, and in between the pages would be even more (hundreds of thousands or millions) of pages of data that could only be read by an electron microscope. Instructions for which would be on the second layer viewable with a lens.
Now imagine 4,481 years in the future, or any other time in which civilization has collapsed, and people have lived primitively for a few generations, and they are starting to rebuild civilization and…they come across one of those “pages”!
Imagine the craze that they would have for the science of optics! Lens crafting and the making of ever more accurate and precise microscopes would be their foremost concern! That, and finding more “pages”. For you see, given the vast volumes of data that our culture has on each subject, even that “layering” trick might be good only for showing all the data on a single set of subjects. A “science” page or a “history” page or etc.
Such “pages” could be highly valued, though we will live to see them very cheap in our time, if all goes well.
Likewise in the future, such pages could be very handy for any interplanetary or inter-stellar colonizing efforts. Currently it costs about $20,000 per pound we put into space. So even if at a future point it is cheaper, one can see that one should economize in weight where one can!
Which is easier, a five story library on a ship? Or that the Captain’s Log be bound in two metal “pages”, each with each side covered in that layered fashion, thus giving the equivalent of four of those metal pages, with the tens of millions of pages of data that we know it can hold? And obviously an electron microscope would be easier to carry than the five story library!
You could go further in “weight saving”. In the wall of the ship there will inevitably need to be access ports to the inside of the walls. Such could be made to be a given size…oh, say 8 by 10!...and those be the pages! You could have all the information one could possibly wish micro-engraved into the hatches and covers of the walls of the ship! To be removed when it arrives at it’s destination.
Extra space? Zero. Extra weight? Less ! For it would have had a microscopic amount shaved off it in the engraving! The information would actually not cost any weight at all, and would actually REDUCE the weight of the ship, albeit by an infinitesimal amount!
Another use for such “pages”? We could have them on random spots throughout our own world here and now, if we can develop an iphone that could scan them and display (visually or audibly) what the information was. This would have an advantage over an electronic chip in that it could be made more resistant to the weather.
Get used to such “pages”. If you don’t live to see them , it’s a sure bet your grandchildren will!
Spools and Capsules?
The Encyclopedia Foundation of Dr. Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series is said to be a repository for the knowledge of mankind, and leads the Galaxy in technology. Yet Dr. Asimov wrote in the forties and fifties, and could not predict some of the stunning advances in data storage and computer technology.
Thus he portrays his characters 20,000 years in the future with hardly any computers. And has Hari Seldon, a mathematician, using an actual handheld calculator such as went out of style in the nineteen seventies! As to data storage, that is an even worse situation. Dr. Asimov speaks of people using “spools” that can be placed in a “book” and then viewed. No doubt an advance over the nineteen forties, but outdate for our time.
Likewise his use of “message capsules” in which messages were sent in small ovoids that had an actual metallic strip in it with writing visible to the eye. At that, those were supposed to be in advance of the “regular” kind, as they would decay after a few minutes.
What does our technology allows us to do now? Neverminding our laptops, iphones and pads that allow us far easier reading than any book spool – and movie viewing – our data storage is far superior in 21st century Earth than on 22nd millennium Terminus.
Do you know how much the future is already here? Consider that there are places where you can buy a cross on a necklace, and the cross will have the entirety of the Bible micro-engraved on it! Computers can have scanners look at micro-engraved discs, upload the data from them, and put it on your screen for you to read at normal size.
Were we to use our technology to the utmost, our “message capsule” would be metal square the size of the tip of your thumb. Micro-engraved with encoded writing, it could be uploaded by computer, but if you didn’t have the “key” then it would be virtually unbreakable gibberish. Clearly, we have made some very strong advances in computers and data storage, far more than was expected!
You may confidently – if you are still middle aged – live to see a variety of data archived on metal discs, unusually small, with computers sold able to scan and upload that information. It would not simply be limited to word data, it could have computer code instructions micro engraved on it, too.
If currently 100,000 pages can be fit on a metal disc two inches square, it could be possible eventually to have millions of pages of data on the same space. A handful of data discs could conceivably contain more information than your average local library!
For you business minded people, get ready to market some “novelties” that might just turn into objects as familiar to us as “photo albums” used to be. How about a disc that contains micro-engraved pictures, or the code to cause the computer to recreate such pictures on it? Imagine a family album – plus full genealogies, history, history of the nations they came from, and any diaries or personal memoirs they liked, all in a disc barely two inches wide? If one had the machine to do it, they could sell such a service to anyone.
Neverminding the business opportunities in offering to archive the records of various large religious groups. The Catholic Church and the Latter Day Saints have vast amounts of archival data, and the rest of the large churches have literal tons of it, too. “Tons” that could be put onto “ounces” of metal discs. With the special scanners to sell them, too.
And what further breakthroughs are there? Have we truly reached the peak? They hadn’t in the forties with punch cards, and doubt we have now in the teens with micro-engraved discs. Can we etch at the atomic level? Could a pin point hold the Library of Congress, and be scanned by a futuristic phone simply scanning it from nearby?
But what of the possibilities of data storage that we have now? The Rosetta Disc has language wrote on it that spirals inward getting smaller and smaller. It is to let someone who comes across it know that the disc is worth subjecting to a microscope. Clever. A data disc the size of a page of notebook paper could do the same. No spirals, rather a “layering”. You could have a page engraved in regular print, and it simply be instructions for obtaining or constructing a lens, plus a brief intro as to what that single metal “page” was.
The lens would allow them to see that the “checkered background” behind the letters was tens of thousands of pages of assorted books, book sets, text books and manuals. Including how to construct an electron microscope.
Which if constructed, would let them see that the “spaces” between the micro-engraved pages on the metal page sized disc contained even more minute engravings. That contained hundreds of thousands of pages of data on every conceivable subject. In theory, that is how you could get all the information you could ever wish to preserve onto one single page.
It may well be one of the things we here at the Encyclopedia Foundation do!
Thus he portrays his characters 20,000 years in the future with hardly any computers. And has Hari Seldon, a mathematician, using an actual handheld calculator such as went out of style in the nineteen seventies! As to data storage, that is an even worse situation. Dr. Asimov speaks of people using “spools” that can be placed in a “book” and then viewed. No doubt an advance over the nineteen forties, but outdate for our time.
Likewise his use of “message capsules” in which messages were sent in small ovoids that had an actual metallic strip in it with writing visible to the eye. At that, those were supposed to be in advance of the “regular” kind, as they would decay after a few minutes.
What does our technology allows us to do now? Neverminding our laptops, iphones and pads that allow us far easier reading than any book spool – and movie viewing – our data storage is far superior in 21st century Earth than on 22nd millennium Terminus.
Do you know how much the future is already here? Consider that there are places where you can buy a cross on a necklace, and the cross will have the entirety of the Bible micro-engraved on it! Computers can have scanners look at micro-engraved discs, upload the data from them, and put it on your screen for you to read at normal size.
Were we to use our technology to the utmost, our “message capsule” would be metal square the size of the tip of your thumb. Micro-engraved with encoded writing, it could be uploaded by computer, but if you didn’t have the “key” then it would be virtually unbreakable gibberish. Clearly, we have made some very strong advances in computers and data storage, far more than was expected!
You may confidently – if you are still middle aged – live to see a variety of data archived on metal discs, unusually small, with computers sold able to scan and upload that information. It would not simply be limited to word data, it could have computer code instructions micro engraved on it, too.
If currently 100,000 pages can be fit on a metal disc two inches square, it could be possible eventually to have millions of pages of data on the same space. A handful of data discs could conceivably contain more information than your average local library!
For you business minded people, get ready to market some “novelties” that might just turn into objects as familiar to us as “photo albums” used to be. How about a disc that contains micro-engraved pictures, or the code to cause the computer to recreate such pictures on it? Imagine a family album – plus full genealogies, history, history of the nations they came from, and any diaries or personal memoirs they liked, all in a disc barely two inches wide? If one had the machine to do it, they could sell such a service to anyone.
Neverminding the business opportunities in offering to archive the records of various large religious groups. The Catholic Church and the Latter Day Saints have vast amounts of archival data, and the rest of the large churches have literal tons of it, too. “Tons” that could be put onto “ounces” of metal discs. With the special scanners to sell them, too.
And what further breakthroughs are there? Have we truly reached the peak? They hadn’t in the forties with punch cards, and doubt we have now in the teens with micro-engraved discs. Can we etch at the atomic level? Could a pin point hold the Library of Congress, and be scanned by a futuristic phone simply scanning it from nearby?
But what of the possibilities of data storage that we have now? The Rosetta Disc has language wrote on it that spirals inward getting smaller and smaller. It is to let someone who comes across it know that the disc is worth subjecting to a microscope. Clever. A data disc the size of a page of notebook paper could do the same. No spirals, rather a “layering”. You could have a page engraved in regular print, and it simply be instructions for obtaining or constructing a lens, plus a brief intro as to what that single metal “page” was.
The lens would allow them to see that the “checkered background” behind the letters was tens of thousands of pages of assorted books, book sets, text books and manuals. Including how to construct an electron microscope.
Which if constructed, would let them see that the “spaces” between the micro-engraved pages on the metal page sized disc contained even more minute engravings. That contained hundreds of thousands of pages of data on every conceivable subject. In theory, that is how you could get all the information you could ever wish to preserve onto one single page.
It may well be one of the things we here at the Encyclopedia Foundation do!
Inevitable Data Loss
The Encyclopedia Foundation, as described by Dr. Isaac Asimov in his “Foundation Series”, was an organization tasked with compiling the knowledge of mankind. All presented as an “Encyclopedia Galactic”. In another article, it has been pointed out that this would actually have to be a “set of book sets” as opposed to a “set of books”. “All” information, however simplified, generalized or modified is actually impossible to have in a simple set of books.
But for that matter, it’s impossible to have in an entire series of book sets. How did Janov Perorat, ancient history professor of Terminus put it to Golan Trevize? He quoted Gennerat’s Law which stated that “The falsely dramatic drives out the truly dull.” True enough. Stories of wars and assassinations and battles and intrigue are well documented in history. Not so much innovations and businesses and ideas of the same time periods. And certainly not the personal lives of the ordinary people and towns.
Nor was this because they didn’t keep records. The ancients did. Tax rolls, if nothing else, and one can see the Bible speaking of Joseph and his family travelling to register. That was not – if you were wondering – done by him saying his name and the tax collector just remembering him. No, they had scribes. Records were kept. Thoroughly enough that you don’t notice the peoples of those times laughing it off and ignoring the decrees to report.
Where are those records? Lost, mostly. Yes, they knew how to copy, they could have copied out a new copy any time the papyrus or such was deteriorating. And if stuff was important, they did. But most of it was not worth preserving, and so now is lost to us forever. We may say that Joseph registered for his taxes as that happened to be mentioned in a book that was thought worthwhile to preserve. But we have no idea whether Dan son of Jedediah of Damascus did. Or even if a person of such name ever existed.
We are coming up on a time where the same thing is going to happen. For different reasons than you think.
Most people might agree we are going to lose data for the reason that we stored so much on punch cards and micro-film and cassette tapes and other old fashioned mediums that we will lose it when the last machine that can read it breaks down. And there is some truth in that, and when it comes to a lot of the completely pointless data, we may well already have, or be about to.
However, there has been some notice of this, and others are taking action, notably our government. They wish to preserve data, pretty much all data, though they may not know what an impossible task that is. Others, such as private corporations, have a better for feel for the complexities of the task, and are only looking to preserve certain data, so are making better progress.
One thing agreed on is this: The electronic storage of data is foolhardy. Oh, it should be done, but it should be backed up with a hard copy. And not “hard copy” as in punch cards, tapes, spools, or even USB Flash Drives. Literal hard copy. As in print outs.
But printouts of paper – books, if you will – are not very practical for vast volumes of data. Especially as you’d like to be able to put it in any future computer for sorting and retrieval. One can feed in paper after paper to a scanner, but that could be a bit labor intensive. Not to mention that such large amounts of paper stored require a lot of space. And maintenance. And will deteriorate anyway.
So increasingly people in the know are looking to store information on small metal discs. Micro-engraved discs could put 10,000 to 100,000 book pages on a disc little bigger than two inches each side. And computers could be had which could read that micro-print in which case that little data disc would serve the purpose of old time punch cards or floppy discs.
Benefits? Incalculable. They would last for thousands of years. They could be read by computers we have now. Future computers will always have the means to read microprint, so the discs will not become obsolete. And – under certain conditions – they could be read without a computer, if one had a powerful enough microscope, in some extreme cases an electron microscope.
So we are not going to have a massive data loss due to our reliance on paper or floppy discs. That problem is solved. Those with foresight will have their data preserved. Those who don’t…will have to eventually anyway, if they are to stay competitive. We believe that such metal discs will be the norm in the future, and will cost remarkably little.
Where we will have the data loss is that while we could start saving data on computers and downloading it on to metal discs now, some data is not on computers, and would have to be entered in to one so as to be transcribed on a metal disc. In a lot of cases, this probably won’t be worth the bother. Some data may even be on a computer, but whoever put it there, or has access to it, may not get around to placing it on a metal disc.
Here we are referring to such things as the local property tax records of Unimportantville, Wyoming for 1872. Things like that may get lost.
Another data loss besides that is coming. Let us say that by massive effort, most all of the “useless” data is actually put on discs. In many cases these would be just a single person or small group, one with a special care for that information, who did it. And they would only make one or two copies.
You see where this is going? Even though it might just be one two inch disc, our population is growing, there's new knowledge, new people, and always new “just” one more two inch disc. At what point is the local library as full of those locally boring discs as some of them are with microfilm?
And while it’s popular for local entities to have back-ups in State facilities, those will get full, too. Oh, perhaps not soon. But after 1,000 years? You bet. At some point, not everything is actually worth storing a hard copy of. Even assuming a completely peaceful and disaster free 1,000 year period. There would also be the silliness of needing to have an inventory of millions of meaningless data discs. Which would mean a disc of that...etc.
But usually there is a flood of the local library. Or a town simply dies and the library is abandoned. Or a war. Or for all we know, an asteroid 7,438 years from now that takes out Earth, leaving only those who live in space to carry on. We cannot know what will happen, only that inevitably something will happen. And only the data current in electronic databanks, and valuable enough to have a million plus copies of it scattered about will be kept over the “long” haul. “Long” meaning ten thousand years from now.
It is possible that electronic storage will continue to develop. And perhaps it will become possible to have all data – even trivial data – stored electronically, accessible to anyone with net access. And perhaps civilization will never have any hiccups to ever interrupt service or cause a loss of stored data. Or any deliberate sabotage, from deletions to subtler re-writings.
But from a review of history, we are not going to bet that way. Information not backed up on a metal disc will inevitably be lost. And most metal discs with only a few copies will inevitably be lost. Dr. Asimov seemed to be aware of this. After all, he had a character in “Foundation’s Edge” who’s principle job was to try and re-discover lost knowledge about a topic blindingly basic to us – the location of man’s original home world! If that can be lost, we would think anything could be!
But for that matter, it’s impossible to have in an entire series of book sets. How did Janov Perorat, ancient history professor of Terminus put it to Golan Trevize? He quoted Gennerat’s Law which stated that “The falsely dramatic drives out the truly dull.” True enough. Stories of wars and assassinations and battles and intrigue are well documented in history. Not so much innovations and businesses and ideas of the same time periods. And certainly not the personal lives of the ordinary people and towns.
Nor was this because they didn’t keep records. The ancients did. Tax rolls, if nothing else, and one can see the Bible speaking of Joseph and his family travelling to register. That was not – if you were wondering – done by him saying his name and the tax collector just remembering him. No, they had scribes. Records were kept. Thoroughly enough that you don’t notice the peoples of those times laughing it off and ignoring the decrees to report.
Where are those records? Lost, mostly. Yes, they knew how to copy, they could have copied out a new copy any time the papyrus or such was deteriorating. And if stuff was important, they did. But most of it was not worth preserving, and so now is lost to us forever. We may say that Joseph registered for his taxes as that happened to be mentioned in a book that was thought worthwhile to preserve. But we have no idea whether Dan son of Jedediah of Damascus did. Or even if a person of such name ever existed.
We are coming up on a time where the same thing is going to happen. For different reasons than you think.
Most people might agree we are going to lose data for the reason that we stored so much on punch cards and micro-film and cassette tapes and other old fashioned mediums that we will lose it when the last machine that can read it breaks down. And there is some truth in that, and when it comes to a lot of the completely pointless data, we may well already have, or be about to.
However, there has been some notice of this, and others are taking action, notably our government. They wish to preserve data, pretty much all data, though they may not know what an impossible task that is. Others, such as private corporations, have a better for feel for the complexities of the task, and are only looking to preserve certain data, so are making better progress.
One thing agreed on is this: The electronic storage of data is foolhardy. Oh, it should be done, but it should be backed up with a hard copy. And not “hard copy” as in punch cards, tapes, spools, or even USB Flash Drives. Literal hard copy. As in print outs.
But printouts of paper – books, if you will – are not very practical for vast volumes of data. Especially as you’d like to be able to put it in any future computer for sorting and retrieval. One can feed in paper after paper to a scanner, but that could be a bit labor intensive. Not to mention that such large amounts of paper stored require a lot of space. And maintenance. And will deteriorate anyway.
So increasingly people in the know are looking to store information on small metal discs. Micro-engraved discs could put 10,000 to 100,000 book pages on a disc little bigger than two inches each side. And computers could be had which could read that micro-print in which case that little data disc would serve the purpose of old time punch cards or floppy discs.
Benefits? Incalculable. They would last for thousands of years. They could be read by computers we have now. Future computers will always have the means to read microprint, so the discs will not become obsolete. And – under certain conditions – they could be read without a computer, if one had a powerful enough microscope, in some extreme cases an electron microscope.
So we are not going to have a massive data loss due to our reliance on paper or floppy discs. That problem is solved. Those with foresight will have their data preserved. Those who don’t…will have to eventually anyway, if they are to stay competitive. We believe that such metal discs will be the norm in the future, and will cost remarkably little.
Where we will have the data loss is that while we could start saving data on computers and downloading it on to metal discs now, some data is not on computers, and would have to be entered in to one so as to be transcribed on a metal disc. In a lot of cases, this probably won’t be worth the bother. Some data may even be on a computer, but whoever put it there, or has access to it, may not get around to placing it on a metal disc.
Here we are referring to such things as the local property tax records of Unimportantville, Wyoming for 1872. Things like that may get lost.
Another data loss besides that is coming. Let us say that by massive effort, most all of the “useless” data is actually put on discs. In many cases these would be just a single person or small group, one with a special care for that information, who did it. And they would only make one or two copies.
You see where this is going? Even though it might just be one two inch disc, our population is growing, there's new knowledge, new people, and always new “just” one more two inch disc. At what point is the local library as full of those locally boring discs as some of them are with microfilm?
And while it’s popular for local entities to have back-ups in State facilities, those will get full, too. Oh, perhaps not soon. But after 1,000 years? You bet. At some point, not everything is actually worth storing a hard copy of. Even assuming a completely peaceful and disaster free 1,000 year period. There would also be the silliness of needing to have an inventory of millions of meaningless data discs. Which would mean a disc of that...etc.
But usually there is a flood of the local library. Or a town simply dies and the library is abandoned. Or a war. Or for all we know, an asteroid 7,438 years from now that takes out Earth, leaving only those who live in space to carry on. We cannot know what will happen, only that inevitably something will happen. And only the data current in electronic databanks, and valuable enough to have a million plus copies of it scattered about will be kept over the “long” haul. “Long” meaning ten thousand years from now.
It is possible that electronic storage will continue to develop. And perhaps it will become possible to have all data – even trivial data – stored electronically, accessible to anyone with net access. And perhaps civilization will never have any hiccups to ever interrupt service or cause a loss of stored data. Or any deliberate sabotage, from deletions to subtler re-writings.
But from a review of history, we are not going to bet that way. Information not backed up on a metal disc will inevitably be lost. And most metal discs with only a few copies will inevitably be lost. Dr. Asimov seemed to be aware of this. After all, he had a character in “Foundation’s Edge” who’s principle job was to try and re-discover lost knowledge about a topic blindingly basic to us – the location of man’s original home world! If that can be lost, we would think anything could be!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)