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!
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