A dead tree copy of Wikipedia. A history book about ancient handmade tools and techniques from prehistory to now. A bunch of K-12 school books about math and science. Also as many various undergraduate and postgraduate level textbooks as possible.
Wikipedia is a great answer because we know that most but no all the information is good. Some is nonsense. This will force the future generations to question and maybe develop their own ‘science’ rather than worship the great authority of ‘the old and holy books’.
The knowledge about science issues generally tracks our current understanding very well. And historical knowledge that is wrong will be extremely difficult for people to check post an apocalyptic event, and even then is largely correct. In fact, if Wikipedia’s science content really were bad enough to matter it would be an awful thing to bring into this situation since having correct knowledge or not could alter whether or not humanity survives at all.
A dead-tree copy of Wikipedia has been estimated at around 1,420 volumes. Here’s an illustration, with a human for scale. It’s big. You might as well go for broke and hole up in a library when the Big Catastrophe happens.
But the WikiReader is probably a step in the right direction that is worth mentioning.
While most of the current technology depend on many other technology to be useful (cellular phones need cellular networks, most gadgets won’t last a day on their internal batteries etc), the WikiReader is a welcome step in the direction less travelled. I only hope that we will have more of that.
A dead tree copy of Wikipedia. A history book about ancient handmade tools and techniques from prehistory to now. A bunch of K-12 school books about math and science. Also as many various undergraduate and postgraduate level textbooks as possible.
Wikipedia is a great answer because we know that most but no all the information is good. Some is nonsense. This will force the future generations to question and maybe develop their own ‘science’ rather than worship the great authority of ‘the old and holy books’.
The knowledge about science issues generally tracks our current understanding very well. And historical knowledge that is wrong will be extremely difficult for people to check post an apocalyptic event, and even then is largely correct. In fact, if Wikipedia’s science content really were bad enough to matter it would be an awful thing to bring into this situation since having correct knowledge or not could alter whether or not humanity survives at all.
Wikipedia would also contain a lot of info about current people and places, which would no longer be remotely useful.
And a lot of popular culture which would no longer be available.
A dead-tree copy of Wikipedia has been estimated at around 1,420 volumes. Here’s an illustration, with a human for scale. It’s big. You might as well go for broke and hole up in a library when the Big Catastrophe happens.
One of these http://thewikireader.com/ with rechargeable batteries and a solar charger could work.
Until some critical part oxidates or otherwise breaks. Which will likely be a long time before the new society is able to build a replacement.
But the WikiReader is probably a step in the right direction that is worth mentioning.
While most of the current technology depend on many other technology to be useful (cellular phones need cellular networks, most gadgets won’t last a day on their internal batteries etc), the WikiReader is a welcome step in the direction less travelled. I only hope that we will have more of that.