The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch
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There is also a substantial literature on the alluring beauty of ruins and decaying urban spaces, the topic of the first chapter. Three good recent examples are Andrew Moore’s photographs in Detroit Disassembled; Forbidden Places by Sylvain Margaine; and RomanyWG’s Beauty in Decay.
I have also provided below a list of a few of the most relevant sources for the general subject matter of each chapter of this book, as well as the references for specific points. Many of these books belong to the Appropriate Technology Library, as indicated by the ATL reference number in brackets after the title. The ATL consists of more than a thousand digitized volumes that have been selected for the practical information they provide on self-sufficiency and rudimentary techniques, and is available on DVD or CD-ROM from Village Earth at http://villageearth.org/appropriate-technology/. Full citation information is given in the bibliography, and also see The Knowledge website, the-knowledge.org, for links to all the cited literature, including free downloads where available.
INTRODUCTION
Nick Bostrom and Milan M. Ćirković, eds., Global Catastrophic Risks.
Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.
Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich, “Can a Collapse of Global Civilization Be Avoided?”
John Michael Greer, The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age.
Bob Holmes, “Starting Over: Rebuilding Civilisation from Scratch.”
Debora MacKenzie, “Why the Demise of Civilisation May Be Inevitable.”
Jeffrey C. Nekola et al., “The Malthusian-Darwinian Dynamic and the Trajectory of Civilization.”
Glenn M. Schwartz and John J. Nichols, eds., After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies.
Joseph A. Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies.
technological regression in Moldova: Connolly (2001).
I, Pencil: Read (1958). Also see Ashton (2013), “What Coke Contains.”
the Toaster Project: Thwaites (2011).
a book for all seasons: Lovelock (1998). Also see the rebuttal to Lovelock’s proposal, “How Not to Save Science,” in Greer (2006), as well as more recent proposals for collating and preserving crucial knowledge in Kelly (2006), Raford (2009), Rose (2010), and Kelly (2011), and the humorous essential T-shirt for time travelers at http://www.topatoco.com/bestshirtever.
the encyclopedia as a safe repository of human knowledge: Yeo (2001).
Apollo program: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Apollo.html.
100 million man-hours devoted to Wikipedia: Shirky (2010).
Richard Feynman quote: “Atoms in Motion,” Chapter 1 in The Feynman Lectures on Physics (1964), now available free at http://feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/I_01.html.
“These fragments I have shored against my ruins”: T. S. Eliot (1922), The Waste Land.
fantasy of starting from scratch: In addition to the novels Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson already mentioned, a number of other fiction books explore the theme of using crucial knowledge to start over. These include Mark Twain’s 1889 novel of an accidental time traveler, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; H. G. Wells’s 1895 novel The Time Machine; and S. M. Stirling’s Island in the Sea of Time (1998), about an entire modern community transported back to the Bronze Age.
wheelbarrow: Lewis (1994).
leapfrogging: Davison (2000), Economist (2006), Economist (2008a, b), McDermott (2010).
Japan leapfrogging: Mason (1997).
intermediate or appropriate technology: Rybczynski (1980), Carr (1985).
repurposing: Edgerton (2007b).
1: THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT
Bruce D. Clayton, Life After Doomsday: A Survivalist Guide to Nuclear War and Other Major Disasters.
Aton Edwards, Preparedness Now! An Emergency Survival Guide.
Dan Martin, Apocalypse: How to Survive a Global Crisis.
James Wesley Rawles, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques and Technologies for Uncertain Times.
Laura Spinney, “Return to Paradise: If the People Flee, What Will Happen to the Seemingly Indestructible?”
Matthew R. Stein, When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency.
Neil Strauss, Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life.
United States Army, Survival (Field Manual 3-05.70).
Alan Weisman, The World Without Us.
John “Lofty” Wiseman, SAS Survival Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Surviving Anywhere.
Jan Zalasiewicz, The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks?
(I should, however, urge caution as not all that is contained in some of the post-appocalyptic survival guides listed above is good advice, particularly in the medical sections.)
Epigraph: Denis Diderot, Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1751–1772. Text available free in the original French from the ARTFL Encyclopédie Project, http://artflsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.4:1252.encyclopedie0513. This English translation taken from Yeo (2001).
the Black Death and its social ramifications: Sherman (2006), Martin (2007).
the theoretical minimum needed for repopulation: Murray-McIntosh (1998), Hey (2005).
“I Am Legend” scenario: Richard Matheson, I Am Legend, 1954.
recolonization by nature and decay of the cities: Spinney (1996), Weisman (2007), Zalasiewicz (2008).
the post-apocalyptic climate: N. Stern (2006), Van Vuuren (2008), Solomon (2009), Cowie (2013).
2: THE GRACE PERIOD
Godfrey Boyle and Peter Harper, Radical Technology.
Jim Leckie et al., More Other Homes and Garbage: Designs for Self-sufficient Living.
Alexis Madrigal, Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology.
Nick Rosen, How to Live Off-Grid: Journeys Outside the System.
John Seymour, The New Complete Book of Self-sufficiency.
Dick and James Strawbridge, Practical Self Sufficiency: The Complete Guide to Sustainable Living.
Jon Vogler, Work from Waste: Recycling Waste to Create Employment.
Epigraph: Daniel Defoe, The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719. Text available free from Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/521.
prepping and survival during a major crisis: Clayton (1980), Edwards (2009), Martin (2011), Rawles (2009), Stein (2008), Strauss (2009), United States Army (2002).
water purification: Huisman (1974), Volunteers in Technical Assistance (1977), Conant (2005).
UK national food reserve: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2010), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (2012).
degrading GPS accuracy: pers. comm., U. S. Coast Guard Navigation Center.
how long a stash of medications would last before they expire: Cohen (2000), Pomerantz (2004).
off-grid electricity: Leckie (1981), Rosen (2007), Madrigal (2011), Clews (1973).
Goražde jury-rigged hydropower: Sacco (2000).
rudimentary plastic recycling: Vogler (1984).
3: AGRICULTURE
Mauro Ambrosoli, The Wild and the Sown: Botany and Agriculture in Western Europe, 1350-1850.
Percy Blandford, Old Farm Tools and Machinery: An Illustrated History.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Food: A History.
John Seymour, The New Complete Book of Self-sufficiency.
Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity.
Epigraph: Wyndham (1951)
soil composition: P. Stern (1979), Wood (1981).
farm tools: Blandford (1976), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1976), Hurt (1982).
harnessing oxe
n to a plow: Starkey (1989).
cereals: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1977).
“humanity subsists, either directly or indirectly, by eating grass”: The potential consequences of this are explored brilliantly in John Christopher’s 1956 novel The Death of Grass, in which the agent of doomsday is not a virus that infects humanity, but a plant pathogen wiping out grass species.
Composting: Gotaas (1976), Dalzell (1981), Shuval (1981), De Decker (2010a).
biogas: House (1978), Goodall (2008), Strawbridge (2010).
honey-sucker trucks in Bangalore: Pearce (2013).
Dillo Dirt: http://austintexas.gov/dillodirt.
superphosphate fertilizer factories in London: Weisman (2007).
Canadian potash: Mokyr (1990).
food production trap: Standage (2010).
4: FOOD AND CLOTHING
Agromisa Foundation, Preservation of Foods.
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Food: A History.
Joan Koster, Handloom Construction: A Practical Guide for the Non-Expert.
Michael Pollan, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation.
John Seymour, The New Complete Book of Self-sufficiency.
Tom Standage, An Edible History Humanity.
Carol Hupping Stoner, Stocking Up: How to Preserve the Foods You Grow Naturally.
Abbott Payson Usher, A History of Mechanical Inventions.
Epigraph: Quote from “The Ruin,” an eighth-century poem in the Exeter Book, written by an unknown Saxon author lamenting Roman ruins. This translation taken from Tainter (1988).
food preservation: Agromisa Foundation (1990), Buttriss (1999), Stoner (1973).
jury-rigged smokehouse: Stoner (1973).
nixtamalization: Fernández-Armesto (2001).
preparation of cereals: UNIFEM (1988).
preparing a sourdough: Avery (2001a, b), Lang (2003).
Mongolian still: Sella (2012).
Zeer pot: Löfström (2011).
Einstein’s refrigerator: Silverman (2001), Jha (2008).
compressor and absorber designs of refrigerator: Cowan (1985), Bell (2011).
wool spinning: Wigginton (1973).
simple weaving: Koster (1979).
the button: Mokyr (1990), Mortimer (2008).
mechanization of spinning and weaving: Usher (1982), Mokyr (1990), Allen (2009).
5: SUBSTANCES
Alan P. Dalton, Chemicals from Biological Resources.
William B. Dick, Dick’s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes.
Kevin M. Dunn, Caveman Chemistry: 28 Projects, from the Creation of Fire to the Production of Plastics.
Epigraph: Atwood (2003).
thermal energy through history: De Decker (2011).
importance of coke in Industrial Revolution: Allen (2009).
coppicing firewood: Stanford (1976).
charcoal: Goodall (2008).
Brazilian charcoal for steel production: Kato et al. (2005).
reserve technologies: Edgerton (2007a).
lime burning: Wingate (1985).
hand washing and reduction of gastrointestinal diseases: Bloomfield and Nath (2009).
the importance of alkalis throughout history: Deighton (1907), Reilly (1951).
wood pyrolysis: Dumesny and Noyer (1908), Dalton (1973), Boyle and Harper (1976), McClure (2000).
acetone shortage in the First World War: David (2012).
sulfuric acid: McKee and Salk (1924), Karpenko (2002).
6: MATERIALS
Kevin M. Dunn, Caveman Chemistry: 28 Projects, from the Creation of Fire to the Production of Plastics.
Albert Jackson and David Day, Tools and How to Use Them: An Illustrated Encyclopedia.
Carl G. Johnson and William R. Weeks, Metallurgy.
Richard Shelton Kirby et al., Engineering in History.
Epigraph: Miller (1960).
wood: United States Department of Agriculture (1974).
basic construction techniques: Leckie (1981), P. Stern (1983), van Lengen (2008).
Roman pozzolana cement: Oleson (2008).
reinforced concrete: P. Stern (1983).
ironworking: Weygers (1974), Winden (1990).
making and using tools: Weygers (1973), Jackson and Day (1978).
hardening and tempering tools: Gentry and Westbury (1980).
oxyacetylene torch: Parkin and Flood (1969).
arc welding: Lincoln Electric Company (1973).
bootstrapping a complete metalworking shop: Gingery (2011).
small-scale foundry and metal casting: Aspin (1975).
iron smelting: Allen (2009), Johnson (1977).
Chinese blast furnace: Mokyr (1990).
Bessemer process: Mokyr (1990).
glassmaking: Whitby (1983).
“lead crystal” glass: MacLeod (1987).
central role of glass in science: Macfarlane (2002).
7: MEDICINE
Murray Dickson, Where There Is No Dentist.
Roy Porter, Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine.
Anne Rooney, The Story of Medicine: From Early Healing to the Miracles of Modern Medicine.
David Werner, Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook.
Epigraph: John Lloyd Stephens, ca. 1841, in Diamond, Collapse (2005).
diseases from animals: Porter (2002), Rooney (2009).
importance of sanitation: Solomon (2011), Conant (2005), Mann and Williamson (1982).
cholera: Clark (2010).
oral rehydration therapy: Conant (2005).
obstetric forceps kept a secret: Porter (2002).
car-parts incubator: Johnson (2010), http://designthatmatters.org/impact/ heonurture.
serendipitous discovery of X-rays: Gribbin (2002), Osman (2011), Kean (2010).
willow bark and aspirin: Mokyr (1990), Pollard (2010).
scurvy and the first clinical trial: Osman (2011).
principles of surgery: Cook (1988).
anesthetics: Dobson (1988).
nitrous oxide: Gribbin (2002), Holmes (2008).
instructions for rudimentary microscope: Casselman (2011).
Leeuwenhoek: Macfarlane (2002), Crump (2001), Gribbin, (2002), Sherman (2006).
Marcus Terentius Varro: Rooney (2009).
serendipitous discovery of antibiotics: Lax (2004), Kelly (2010), Winston (2010), Pollard (2010).
extraction and mass production of penicillin: Lax (2004).
8: POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Godfrey Boyle and Peter Harper, Radical Technology.
Alexis Madrigal, Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology.
Abbott Payson Usher, A History of Mechanical Inventions.
Epigraph: Frank (1959).
Roman waterwheel: Usher (1982), Oleson (2008).
key innovations during the supposedly “dark” medieval era: Fara (2009).
windmills: McGuigan (1978a), Mokyr (1990), Hills (1996), De Decker (2009.)
importance of waterwheels and windmills: Basalla (1988).
diverse uses of waterwheels and windmills: Usher (1982), Solomon (2011).
mechanisms for transforming motion: Hiscox (2007), Brown (2008).
suction pumps: Fraenkel (1997).
steam engine: Usher (1982), Mokyr (1990), Crump (2001), Allen (2009).
voltaic pile: Gribbin (2002).
Baghdad battery: Schlesinger (2010), Osman (2011).
discovery of electromagnetism: Crump (2001), Gribbin (2002), Hamilton (2003), Fara (2009), Schlesinger (2010), Ball (2012).
retrofitting a traditional four-sail windmill: Watson and Thomson (2005).
Charles Brush’s electrici
ty-generating windmill: Hills (1996), Winston (2010), Krouse (2011).
water turbines: McGuigan (1978b), Usher (1982), Holland (1986), Mokyr (1990), Eisenring (1991).
9: TRANSPORT
Epigraph: Dahl (1975).
Rudolf Diesel quote: Goodall (2008).
bioethanol: United States Department of Energy (1980), Goodall (2008).
biodiesel: Rosen (2007), Strawbridge (2010).
gas bag vehicles: House (1978), De Decker (2011b).
wood-fueled Tiger tanks: Krammer (1978).
wood gasifiers: De Decker (2010b), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (1986), LaFontaine and Zimmerman (1989).
guayule: National Academy of Sciences (1977).
harnessing oxen: Starkey (1989).
throat-and-girth harness and horse collar: Mokyr (1990).
peak horse use: Edgerton (2007a, b).
sails: Farndon (2010).
Cuban resurrection of animal traction: Edgerton (2007b).
penny-farthing and modern safety bicycle: Broers (2005).
the nature of novel technologies and the automobile as a lashing together of preexisting mechanical solutions: Arthur (2009), Kelly (2010), Mokyr (1990).