How to open can without can opener

For the launch of the book, we created a series of five short films to showcase different techniques that would be vital for surviving the immediate aftermath and rebuilding the capability of your post-apoclyptic society. This first one in a series of three shows how to open a tin can without a can opener, or any other tool. If you understand a little about how the tin can is constructed, you can exploit a neat trick to open the lid very easily. Also see (2/3): How to start a fire with everyday items and (3/3) How to make a gasifier stove, as well as How To: Electrolysis.

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

Guardian science podcast

Guardian_ScienceI appeared this week on The Guardian science podcast, chatting with Alok Jha about The Knowledge and how to orchestrate the recovery of civilisation after an apocalypse. The 15 minute interview starts from the 21:50 time-stamp. Listen here

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

Esquire magazine: 10 Step Guide To Surviving The Apocalypse

If you’re in a hurry, or only have time to read one quick article before the modern world crashes and the internet goes down, make it this one. I wrote a 10 step quick guide for surviving and rebuilding after the apocalypse for UK men’s mag Esquire. Don’t panic, and think like you’re abroad… Read the full article here

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

New York Times: Civilization’s Starter Kit

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Graham Roumieu

My op-ed for the New York Times appeared on page SR8 of the Sunday print edition. ‘Civilization’s Starter Kit‘ begins with my own incompetence at all things pragmatic, and indeed how useless most people today are when it comes to repairing or maintaining the everyday devices or appliances that we take for granted. How many of us have any real understanding of how the objects in our pocket were made, or even where the food we eat has come from or how to make clothes from scratch. I think that because of this there is a growing feeling of disconnect among all of us in the developed world today from the basic processes and principles that provide for us. But what if this life-support system of modern civilisation were to collapse? What starter kit would you need to rebuild it all from the basics? Read the full feature here.

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

How To Make Mead

There is an inherent relationship between loving bees and making mead. Fermenting honey into mead is very simple and it may even be the oldest alcohol made by humanity, predating both beer and wine. An ancient product, mead can be either sweet or dry, carbonated or flat, but like frying an egg, it is the simplest things that are the hardest to perfect.

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The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

PIXELS

PIXELS is a new short film from Patrick Jean is a very nice retro-take on the apocalypse movie. The Earth is attacked by a horde of 8-bit baddies, all familiar from classic childhood video games. Look out for the Space Invaders, PacMan, Pong, King Kong, Tetris, and BomberMan, all convincingly rendered into the New York cityscape.

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

Similar projects

JZ2Orzf - ImgurThe notion of preserving human knowledge for posterity, in sum total or at least a condensed summary of the key principles, in case of a cataclysm that collapses civilisation is not a new one. As discussed more fully in the History of the Total Book blogpost, eighteenth-century encyclopaedia compilers were conscious of the fragility of past empires and made efforts to catalogue and preserve crucial information for society in the aftermath of a great catastrophe. One of the inspirations for me to begin researching and writing The Knowledge on this theme was James Lovelock’s 1998 essay on the threats to our modern civilisation and the necessity for a ‘Book for All Seasons’. And there have been a number of other, similar propositions since then.

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The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.

The Big Issue

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The Big Issue printed an interview with me, entitled So You’ve Survived The End Of The World: What Now? It runs through your top priorities after the apocalypse, from how to survive in the immediate aftermath, to reinstate agriculture and smelting your own metals. The illustration here, gives the position of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which is located in the Norwegian high arctic and so serves as a natural freezer for the genetic diversity needed to restart farming. Read the full article here.

 

The Knowledge Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.