| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 12:40:30 AM | Just for the hell of it: I'm sure at least a small number of you have read books about how to survive in a post apocalyptic world, and it's an interesting topic; I'm not interested in just simple survival though. I'm interested in finding a book that litterally says how to survive and rebuild. To get from less than nomadic to modern-day technology (or as close as possible) in less than a lifetime.
Are there any books that come close???
--Brandon | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 6:55:15 AM | Interesting topic... I'm not an expert, but I something of an armchair-survivalist (meaning, I don't prepare, but I think far too much about it).
The first thing to ask is the nature of this apocalypse, and how deeply it would affect the world. Barring near-total and immediate devastation of the Earth, some remnant of the existing social and military structure would remain, and would quickly enact martial law to hold on to their existing power. It wouldn't be an immediate shift from the modern era to pre-civilized society, but a violent period where whoever can grab the scraps of the world by force can and will seize power. In that scenario, survival is not so much finding a way to scrape a living off the now-dying earth (though it would certainly help), but of whom can survive the inevitable struggle of all against all - human on human violence. Think of something like life in Pol Pot's Cambodia, magnified and affecting a larger percentage of the world's population, and that would describe life in post-apocalyptic earth for the forseeable future.
That is, of course, assuming the apocalypse doesn't coincidentially leave just enough people for post-cataclysmic Earth to sustain (or maybe less).
To answer the question - if humanity is reduced to a small enclave of people - the size of a village, perhaps - the only way to get back to modern-era technology within a lifetime is planning, and preservation of useful knowledge - understand of chemistry, biology, and most importantly, energy. If I were looking out for the long-term survival of my enclave, education would be among the top concerns, and I'd bring as many textbooks as possible concerning the hard sciences, and do everything possible to keep them in good shape.
There are quite a few survivalist texts on the web... one thing to keep in mind though is that the writers often (but not always) show or even flaunt their political or religious biases in their works, and many are not interested in recreating modern technology at all. I would wonder if going back on the path humanity is heading now is the wisest solution - in all likelihood, some of our knowledge will be retained, but in other areas the post-apocalyptic society would diverge from the technological path that most of humanity went down over the past couple centuries or so.
Apologies for the rambling nature of this post. :) | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 7:01:42 AM |
If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
I don't know of any books that do exactly what you want.
However you should rethink, in depth, what you are asking.
First off, if the world ended, in the literal sense, that could mean:
A) Earth was blown the pieces.
B) The universe imploded on itself.
Or in the less literal sense:
C) All or most humans have become extinct.
In case of A & B, you don't have to worry about any books... there will be no one to read them... there will be no books.
In case of C, no book will help you as you will be looking for food, water, and shelter most of your day... and not to mention compete for those things with any survivors.
That said, pickup some basic physics books, some math books, some health books, and some agriculture books. I would even suggest an encyclopedia of each major subject.
My reasoning is as follows: If it all goes to hell, you don't know exactly what you will need to "rebuild"... and therefore, I'd assume, no one has written a bulletproof pocket guide on "rebuilding heaven from hell". | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 8:20:09 AM | Do a Google search for "Survivalist Handbook."
Pick up a copy of Roberts Rules of Order. It gives an outline to follow to conduct orderly meetings, useful for running a club, a convention, or a parliament. Essential if you are a member of a group of survivors.
Publications like The Anarchist's Cookbook explain how to make destructive devices from common materials. Essential for conducting urban guerrilla warfare.
US Army Survival Handbook. Probably the best basic survival handbook out there.
If the task is to rebuild civilization, in addition to a number of math, physics, and chemistry texts, you'll need the CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics, and whatever engineering and technology handbooks you can get your hands on. Also look for "How It Works" books.
Other sources:
Worst-Case Scenario handbook
http://www.survival-center.com/guide/
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 10:03:40 AM | | Pick up every textbook you can find in Materials Science and Engineering, which is the amalgamation of Metallurgy, Ceramics and Polymer Engineering. This will allow you to produce metals, ceramics and given the right sources, polymers. If you need to produce metals or ceramics from geological sources, Mineral Process Engineering, Mining and Geology textbooks will be useful. A source of heat will be needed, solar furnace design would be useful. Older but related information would be books on blacksmithing. | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 11:54:44 AM | | I would suggest taking a course and reading books on wilderness survival and first aid just to make sure you have the necessary skills to survive without the nice insulation and infrastructure of society. | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding?
Posted: 6/21/2008 1:07:39 PM | | I don't think any one person or family is going to be able to do much about rebuilding civilization- it's going to take a community, at minimum, and a community needs structure and order to prosper- that is, rules and laws. Technology will come eventually, as a result of people developing specialized skills, but specialized skills need the support of at least a basic economy; so a good beginning for survival is developing a strong sense of community now, before things begin to break down. | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 10:37:05 PM | Not sure what books would help one to prepare for the end of the world but I would suggest you read whatever books you think will help long beforehand. When the end of the world comes, you likely won't have time for reading and discussion groups.
Be like most survival nuts and hoard supplies, that way the marauding hordes will be able to find you and get lots of good stuff. | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/21/2008 11:43:17 PM | | Why do these threads always assume every single material on the face of the planet will be gone before us ? Honestly it makes no sense considering a lot of the materials on the market are a lot more durable than the human body. | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/22/2008 6:32:52 AM | | True true, if your local Chapters store survives the end of the world you would be able to get a shopping cart full of durable publications to enable you to survive the apocalypse and for free !!!!! | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/22/2008 1:42:57 PM | Y'see, here's the basic problem with having books after an apocalypse...they make great firestarters, decent toilet paper, and those things tend to take precedence in a SHTF situation.
In a truly world-wide disaster, if the population isn't culled down by at least 3/4ths or more, books will quickly go buh-bye as the less enlightened use them for cooking starters/heat/light...
The next war probably won't be nuclear..it's going to be Biological. | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/22/2008 1:51:49 PM |
Posted By: Last not Least on 6/22/2008 12  05 AM Subject: If the world ended - any books for rebuilding??? Message: Be like most survival nuts and hoard supplies, that way the marauding hordes will be able to find you and get lots of good stuff.
First, you have to FIND the survival nuts. Then you have to face their booby traps and Very Accurate and Heavy gunfire. The you have to break down the first Heavy Steel Door. Then you face MORE booby traps and more gunfire...repeat until either the horde or the survivalists are dead. Oh, and make sure you manage to defeat the booby traps in his Foodstock room as well...otherwise you'll get nothing for all the effort. 
And if you see Army or Marine insignia at the front gate of a Survivalist location, just shoot yourself in the head, it'll save you some grief. Or make entry and they'll do it for you...at 800 yards.  | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/22/2008 3:04:55 PM | True, the nuts will be dug in like marmots. I know that the military and the police will be given orders to shoot looters on sight. They will be given those orders simply because the authorities would want to give them something to keep them busy.
Oh and I agree with bigshrek. Biologicals would be easier to deploy and much cheaper. Kill ratios could be a hell of a lot higher. More bang for the buck as it were. | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/22/2008 3:29:55 PM | You could do it the easy way and make friends with Jehovah's Witnesses or the LDS Mormons. They already have every thing totally set up and ready to go :o)
Plus I think the Amish will completey make it through if they survive the genetic illnesses cropping up with the last few generations because of all the inbreeding.
Interesting thread with some interesting comments and direction
I most appreciated the ones from Beaugrand  | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/25/2008 11:08:18 PM | To answer one question from earlier, my idea is that "some" survive, maybe one out of every hundred or so... and probably no radiation etc.
You'd want to be careful finding those survival nuts... the reasons should be very clear. They'll pop out of their bomb shelters with their holy-books, guns, and supplies, and they'll say they survived the apocalypse under God's direction and it's their responsibility to convert all survivors to their faith, and kill all who resist. It's unfortunate and crazy to think that people who are "crazy" now would be the most prepared after an event like that; doesn't the thought just suck??? Mentally unstable people fully supplied and ready to "lead" the world in a new post-apocalyptic direction. They'd take advantage of hungry people, give them food, set up communities, brainwash... be exactly the kinda nuts I'd want to stay the hell away from. Could be fun to conduct raiding parties against... wear colorful masks to frighten them, maybe make them think you're demons or something.
So before going to find any survivors... make sure you've got your shit together!!! And don't let em follow you home!
--Brandon
BTW: I love the responses this has been getting... lots of laughs, and even a bit of insight! Thanks! | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/26/2008 4:18:21 AM | In my post... I mentioned living and surviving in a post-apocalyptic world and recovering to modern day technology within a lifetime; and the best books to help someone do so. Clearly, my question pertains to people surviving after a major event that destroys the world (as we know it) and that also doesn't kill everyone. I did not say "destroys all of mankind" or even "makes the Earth uninhabitable, everyone dies" or "destroys the planet" and I did specifically and clearly mention survivors.
If everybody was dead, every last one, there would be nobody to rebuild anything or to survive... it would be a waste of time for me to ask "how do I survive" if everyone including myself is dead. If my scenario killed everyone, every last person, including myself why would I ask what books exist to help someone survive in such a post-apocalyptic world when there would be no survivors??? Furthermore, why would anyone write a book about how to survive and rebuild modern day society after an apocalytic event where everyone, including the reader, is dead???
So, no... the word "ended" does not include everybody - as you could clearly see in my post.
--Brandon | |
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| If the world ended - any books for rebuilding???
Posted: 6/26/2008 7:34:23 AM | Ray, gotta agree with ya, the Boy Scout Handbook has it ALL!
I remember an early fishing trip with an uncle, he went out to "His Spot" and I stopped for a minit, read the BSH, and picked my spot accordingly. I ended up with a 5-gallon bucket full of bass...he didn't catch a single fish all day. His sons ragged him for YEARS for loosing to a 11-yr-old at HIS favorite lake!! | |
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