What if your audience can’t read? What if they don’t understand English, because they’re rural Chinese, or because it’s 3000 AD?
Supposing that they read the first chapter out of curiosity, you need to convince them it’ll be worth their while to read the rest of the book and do what it tells them to, at cost of time, effort, materials, money and reputation.
You also need to choose a catchy title. I recommend From Sticks and Stones to Atom Bombs: How to Build Your Own World-Destroying Civilization In Only 30 Days!!!
Right, I’m thinking the first chapter will have to teach numbers, logical connectors and a basic English vocabulary. Additional vocabulary can be added throughout the book. We’ll just have to hope that the reader can understand more or less universal symbols like arrows to point directions, circles to indicate groupings, proximity indicates labels etc. Also, a section on anatomy will be less helpful the more they’ve mutated.
I think arithmetic can probably be taught with reference to dots. So:
″” =
″“= 4
″ + ” = 4
etc.
Geometry shouldn’t be a problem either. The whole thing would have to be heavily illustrated anyway.
Maybe the first couple pages should just depict really happy people using technology paired with stone agers looking miserable.
So, does anyone want to write out a very preliminary table of contents? Other ideas about how such a book would be organized?
You have to handle two issues first:
What if your audience can’t read? What if they don’t understand English, because they’re rural Chinese, or because it’s 3000 AD?
Supposing that they read the first chapter out of curiosity, you need to convince them it’ll be worth their while to read the rest of the book and do what it tells them to, at cost of time, effort, materials, money and reputation.
You also need to choose a catchy title. I recommend From Sticks and Stones to Atom Bombs: How to Build Your Own World-Destroying Civilization In Only 30 Days!!!
Right, I’m thinking the first chapter will have to teach numbers, logical connectors and a basic English vocabulary. Additional vocabulary can be added throughout the book. We’ll just have to hope that the reader can understand more or less universal symbols like arrows to point directions, circles to indicate groupings, proximity indicates labels etc. Also, a section on anatomy will be less helpful the more they’ve mutated.
I think arithmetic can probably be taught with reference to dots. So:
″ ” =
″ “= 4
″ + ” = 4 etc.
Geometry shouldn’t be a problem either. The whole thing would have to be heavily illustrated anyway.
Maybe the first couple pages should just depict really happy people using technology paired with stone agers looking miserable.