Link – Survivor Library

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In the survivalist classic, Lucifers Hammer, a nerdy scientist realizes that the most valuable thing to save for the rebuilding of civilization will be knowledge. The information on how to build generators, grow food, treat injuries, prevent disease, build shelters, etc, etc,. To that end, he starts preserving all sorts of useful books and eventually he is proved right in his prediction of their utility.

Someone appears to have taken that idea and ran with it. A collection of .PDFs of various texts, going back quite a ways, on subjects that would be useful if you believe in the ‘we start over with 19th century technology’ scenarios.

I love reading this sort of stuff. While I have no intention of making penicillin from scratch, but I’d be interested in reading how it was done nonetheless.

10 thoughts on “Link – Survivor Library”

  1. i often wonder if during the clash of civilizations or wars or even natural disasters the knowledge of the eons has been lost over and over again. what was the “library” that was burned in eqypt i think? that was said to hold the thousands of manuscripts of the knowledge of the then world? isis destroys any “civilization” it comes in contact with, sending it back to the bronze age. i suppose many before them have done the same. all that separates us from animals is not thumbs, but passage of knowledge from generation to generation. those that wish to conquer need ignorant subjects to be successful, as witnessed today.

    • You would be referring to the Library of Alexandria. There’s quite a bit of question as to who (or even if) the main library was destroyed by, but we know that a smaller annex of the library was ordered destroyed by a Coptic Pope in the 4th century. It’s hard to say how much was actually lost but it is something of a symbol of the loss of knowledge due to warfare and cultural clashes. Interestingly, it was the Vatican (and the various churches under it) that started the Renaissance through their commissioning of art across Europe.

    • As the book said, he needed a sheep every month and I don’t think anyone had sheep.

  3. That’s some neat stuff. I might spend a little time making myself a little library.

    Amazon has a lot of really old stuff for free for Kindle with similar info.

    • Logging some hours after work hours with my office copier/printer has been on my to-do list. Having a Kindle compendium of documents like this is all well and good, but hard copies are king when push comes to shove.

      • I agree with the hard copy version, especially the more important information. Storing that medium can be real chore, especially if you don’t have a catalog system (color tab) to access the information as quickly as possible.

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