Build a brick wall
When it comes to rebuilding after the cataclysm of the apocalypse, you will need to relearn ancient crafts such as brick-laying and how to build a safe, sturdy wall.
Make a voltaic pile
Chapter 8, Power to the People, explains how the fundamentals of electricity can be redeveloped. To produce an electric battery, all you need is disks of two metals with different reactivities and some cardboard soaked with salty water. Here is a demonstration of building a ‘Voltaic pile’ from old coins.
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.
Turn an electric drill into a generator
Chapter 2 deals with how you can use scavenged materials to keep your world electrified once the grid goes down, including converting the permanent magnet motor (PMM) inside a hand drill into an electric generator. Here’s one demonstration of that process.
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.
NextGenVoices: Science Time Travel
In 2013, the influential academic journal Science ran a survey that was along similar lines to the idea behind The Knowledge. They asked young scientists the following question:
You can travel back in time to share one piece of scientific knowledge from today. Where do you go? Describe the date and place you choose, the information you share, and how it might change the course of history. (Assume that the people you visit will understand and believe you!)
They received nearly 200 responses and published excerpts from some of the best answers in their 5th July issue. Although I suspect that some of the proposals for changing history would be unsuccessful – teaching Julius Caesar Baye’s Theorem in an effort to escape his assaination on the Ides of March, for example – there are some great ideas about the timely introduction of key knowledge in here. I particularly like the idea of showing Archimedes the basic mathematics of calculus or teaching eleventh-century China the principles of microbiology and communicable diseases.
The full selection of responses is available here.
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.
James Burke : Connections
The first episode of James Burke’s great documentary series, Connections, summarises many of the points covered in The Knowledge. ‘The Trigger Effect’ discusses how specialised each of our own skill sets, and how interconnected and interdependent all the components of modern civilisation have become, so that a failure in one part can cause a cascade that collapses the whole system. What would you personally be capable of doing if this technological support network disappeared?
Update: This scene is no longer available to watch on YouTube, but you can watch the entire series with this DVD boxed set
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 birchbark tar
Birch tar or pitch is a truly ancient substance – used as long ago as the mesolithic stone age to attach an axe head to the handle or fletching to arrows, and is also useful for creating torches. This video demonstrates a more convenient method for collecting the tar, using scavenged tin cans. In the book, we explore other examples of the dry distillation of wood in producing valuable substances, or even for powering a car.
(PS: Yeah, I don’t know about the smoked badger fur either….)
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.
There’s a hole in the bucket
One of the challenges that would be faced after an apocalypse in keeping remnant technology running or trying to accelerate a reboot are the inherent chains of dependencies. This point is made wonderfully clearly by the classic Sesame Street song ‘There’s a hole in the bucket’…
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.
Best post-apocalyptic books
There is a rich and satisfying seam of sci-fi novels whose core themes overlap with those of The Knowledge. Here are the very best post-apocalyptic books, as well as other stories involving the exploitation of expertise for rebuilding civilisation, such as by time-travellers thrown far into either the past or future. I’ve listed my favourites below, including a selection of the very best top reads (but not dystopian fiction in general). Clicking the book covers or links will allow you to pick-up these novels yourself. If you’d like to explore this genre of literature further, see this list of post-apocayltpic book clubs around the world where you can discuss your thoughts on different books over a drink with new friends. Also see The Knowledge’s selection of the Best Post-Apocalyptic Movies, Best Post-Apocalyptic Games and Best Post-Apocalyptic Apps.