Part of the joy of the editing process is keeping an eagle-eye out for errors and typos that have snuck in during the rounds of changes. This particular one, perhaps a prophetic misquote of Eliot, drew a wry smile to my lips…
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 Guardian Review section carried a feature article on the themes of The Knowledge in the Saturday paper, 15th March 2014. The article also appeared on-line and attracted a large number of comments, mostly focussed on the inevitable period of turbulence and violence immediately after the collapse of civilisation.
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.
For many of the illustrations in The Knowledge we were lucky to be able to find exquisitely detailed line drawings from nineteenth century encyclopaedias, such as this one on the left depicting the major cereal crops. Most of these were adapted to our purposes by the skilful illustrator Bill Donohoe, who also created several graphics from scratch, such as the basic tools of agriculture and the fundamental mechanisms of the crank and cam. Bill’s work is absolutely beautiful and has been used for lots of books in the past. Have a look at his website www.billdonohoe.com
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.
Apparel brand ‘Under Armour’ have begun incorporating an ingenious re-imagining of the basic zipper in its clothes, created by engineer Scott Peters. Although the fastening still relies on the interlocking of two bands of metal teeth, the clasps at the bottom have received a thoughtful re-design. The motivation for Peters, he says, was watching his uncle, who suffers from myotonic dystrophy, struggle to engage the conventional clasps. The solution is the inclusion of magnets and a unique catch, so that the two halves automatically align with one another and the zipper can even be done up one handed.
Fastenings are discussed briefly in Chapter 4 of The Knowledge. Whilst the complexity of zippers will probably remain beyond the reach of a society recovering from scratch, buttons became common in medieval Europe in the mid-1300s and ushered in a true revolution in fashion. Rather than black being the new brown being the new black, with an easily reversible fastening you can fundamentally change the form of clothes. Instead of wrapped around like a toga, or having to be slipped over the top of the head like a loose-fitting tunic, easily-reversible fastenings allow clothes to be much more snug-fitting and comfortable.
What I love in particular about this zipper story is that it’s a reminder that no technology ever reaches a final design – everything is continually evolving and being updated, even the most prosaic items in life that we use without thinking, such as zippers.
Read the full story on fastcodesign.com
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.
This is a teaser video for the March edition of the Cosmic Genome, run by Robin Ince, and featuring myself and Alice Roberts. I’m talking about the book, the key knowledge for keeping yourself healthy after the apocalypse and the delightful phrase used by doctors ‘faecal-oral transfer’.
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 ‘Course of Empire’ is a series of five paintings (a pentaptych) by Thomas Cole over the years 1833–36. Each of the paintings shows a river valley from the same vantage point, and over the sequence a great civilisation rises then falls. The scenes are named: The Savage State, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, The Consummation of Empire, Destruction, and Desolation.
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.
If you live in the UK and can get into London, I would heartily recommend the Ruin Lust exhibition at the Tate Britain gallery. The collection includes the classic apocalyptic paintings of John Martin, watercolours of ruined abbeys, as well as more modern photography of derelict buildings. The exhibition runs until Sunday 18th May 2014.
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 themes of doomsday, surviving in a post-apocalyptic world and rebuilding from rudimentary means have been common tropes throughout the history of literature (it’s by no means a recent trend in sci-fi) – as explored in the article on recommended novels. Many of these older publications have fallen out of copyright restrictions and so are now with the public domain, available as free audio downloads. There is also a fantastic body of audio recordings that are free to download. I’ve collected together my recommended list of essential listening, pulling together the very best short stories and full novels. There are also a few poems here, such as Eliot’s ‘Wasteland’ and Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ that feature as chapter epigraphs in The Knowledge.
(see OpenCulture for a full listing of all available short stories, novels and poems)
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.