MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 03355cam a2200313 i 4500
001 2013040820
003 DLC
005 20141023080822.0
008 131028s2014 nyua b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2013040820
020 $a9781594205231 (hardback)
040 $aDLC$beng$cDLC$dDLC$erda
042 $apcc
050 00 $aT47$b.D37 2014
082 00 $a500$223
084 $aTEC000000$aSCI000000$2bisacsh
100 1 $aDartnell, Lewis.
245 14 $aThe knowledge :$bhow to rebuild our world from scratch /$cLewis Dartnell.
264 1 $aNew York :$bThe Penguin Press,$c2014.
300 $a340 pages :$billustrations ;$c23 cm
336 $atext$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$2rdacarrier
520 $a" How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch? If our technological society collapsed tomorrow, perhaps from a viral pandemic or catastrophic asteroid impact, what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible-a guide for rebooting the world? Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest-or even the most basic-technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, accurately tell time, weave fibers into clothing, or even how to produce food for yourself? Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can't hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn't just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all-the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. This would allow survivors to learn technological advances not explicitly explored in The Knowledge as well as things we have yet to discover. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself"--$cProvided by publisher.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
650 0 $aTechnology$vPopular works.
650 0 $aDiscoveries in science$vPopular works.
650 0 $aSurvival$vPopular works.
650 0 $aKnowledge, Theory of$vPopular works.