PH and the human technology stack

[otolith]

Prompted by a couple of recent TV programmes about the history of metallurgy and the development of weaponry, and a discussion on the GoT thread about knowledge in that fictional world, I was thinking about how we would rebuild if it were all taken away from us. If we lost all of the artefacts of our civilisation, our machines, buildings, tools, libraries. Say that all we have is a pristine planet and the knowledge in the heads of PH.

There are things I know that took our species a long time to work out, and having had a science education I know the useful but limited basics from school and a lot of biology from university, albeit that the last three years of it would be too specialised to be of any use. I know how to smelt metals, make gunpowder, enough about agriculture to run an allotment, enough about genetics to selectively breed crops, etc, but of course there are things I don't know - for instance, I'm not a geologist, I wouldn't know where to find metal ores, and I'm sure there are many unknown unknowns waiting to trip me up.

So we're not starting from day zero. We've got shelter, a source of water, we're feeding ourselves well enough with what we can forage or hunt with wooden weapons, snares and traps. How do we get from here to the industrial revolution and beyond? Keep in mind that we will also need to get this knowledge recorded for future generations.

Where do we go?

[Bobberoo99]

otolith said:

Prompted by a couple of recent TV programmes about the history of metallurgy and the development of weaponry, and a discussion on the GoT thread about knowledge in that fictional world, I was thinking about how we would rebuild if it were all taken away from us. If we lost all of the artefacts of our civilisation, our machines, buildings, tools, libraries. Say that all we have is a pristine planet and the knowledge in the heads of PH.

There are things I know that took our species a long time to work out, and having had a science education I know the useful but limited basics from school and a lot of biology from university, albeit that the last three years of it would be too specialised to be of any use. I know how to smelt metals, make gunpowder, enough about agriculture to run an allotment, enough about genetics to selectively breed crops, etc, but of course there are things I don't know - for instance, I'm not a geologist, I wouldn't know where to find metal ores, and I'm sure there are many unknown unknowns waiting to trip me up.

So we're not starting from day zero. We've got shelter, a source of water, we're feeding ourselves well enough with what we can forage or hunt with wooden weapons, snares and traps. How do we get from here to the industrial revolution and beyond? Keep in mind that we will also need to get this knowledge recorded for future generations.

Where do we go?

Amazon?

[Shakermaker]

Well, once we've got back to the point of having commercial air travel, I'll be able to help efficiently asses the turnaround needs of each of those aircraft and ensure enough staff are available to cover them

So that's something

[PixelpeepS3]

Easy - plan a trip every month to Area 57 and pass off some more alien tech as our own?

[otolith]

PixelpeepS3 said:

Easy - plan a trip every month to Area 57 and pass off some more alien tech as our own?

Might be a bit challenging to get there!

But we might need to travel, and transport raw materials, and it occurs to me that there might be some bootstrap technologies that hardly anyone really understands anymore because they've been superseded. For instance, the construction of large wooden sailing ships. I'm not volunteering for the first voyage.

[Shakermaker]

otolith said:

PixelpeepS3 said:

Easy - plan a trip every month to Area 57 and pass off some more alien tech as our own?

Might be a bit challenging to get there!

But we might need to travel, and transport raw materials, and it occurs to me that there might be some bootstrap technologies that hardly anyone really understands anymore because they've been superseded. For instance, the construction of large wooden sailing ships. I'm not volunteering for the first voyage.

Actually, there are quite a lot of people who already know how to make, and regularly make, large wooden sailing ships.

[Monkeylegend]

We need to develop a thing called the wheel and then form a group to discuss the wheel and all it's ramifications.

[Bobberoo99]

Monkeylegend said:

We need to develop a thing called the wheel and then form a group to discuss the wheel and all it's ramifications.

[Shakermaker]

Bobberoo99 said:

Monkeylegend said:

We need to develop a thing called the wheel and then form a group to discuss the wheel and all it's ramifications.

But don't you dare suggest powering this "wheel" with heavy oil unless you have a "chip" to go with it

[Zetec-S]

otolith said:

Say that all we have is a pristine planet and the knowledge in the heads of PH.

I'd guess things would quickly descend into an argument. Mainly about whether or not to try and reinvent the diesel engine.

[Monkeylegend]

Shakermaker said:

Bobberoo99 said:

Monkeylegend said:

We need to develop a thing called the wheel and then form a group to discuss the wheel and all it's ramifications.

But don't you dare suggest powering this "wheel" with heavy oil unless you have a "chip" to go with it

Don't be silly, we will build a horse.

[FlyingMeeces]

I'm probably good for some social structural stuff - health, social care, education.

The job will be persuading those healthy, nondisabled adults who do not have kids of the value of the above…

[Bobberoo99]

Monkeylegend said:

Shakermaker said:

Bobberoo99 said:

Monkeylegend said:

We need to develop a thing called the wheel and then form a group to discuss the wheel and all it's ramifications.

But don't you dare suggest powering this "wheel" with heavy oil unless you have a "chip" to go with it

Don't be silly, we will build a horse.

But surely if we want to go fast we will need many powers of horse!?!?!?!

[Shakermaker]

Bobberoo99 said:

But surely if we want to go fast we will need many powers of horse!?!?!?!

But if we are starting from scratch, we can build a better horse

[Monkeylegend]

Bobberoo99 said:

Monkeylegend said:

Shakermaker said:

Bobberoo99 said:

Monkeylegend said:

We need to develop a thing called the wheel and then form a group to discuss the wheel and all it's ramifications.

But don't you dare suggest powering this "wheel" with heavy oil unless you have a "chip" to go with it

Don't be silly, we will build a horse.

But surely if we want to go fast we will need many powers of horse!?!?!?!

I mentioned in an earlier thread that I was designing an inline direct hay injection system so we could link up several horses with a type of strap system. We just need to think how we could incorporate the wheel into this suggestion.

[otolith]

Shakermaker said:

Actually, there are quite a lot of people who already know how to make, and regularly make, large wooden sailing ships.

That's surprising, I didn't think anyone built wooden ships of that scale now. What do they use them for? And do they still use traditional tools and methods, and most importantly, have we got any of them on PH?

[otolith]

Shakermaker said:

But if we are starting from scratch, we can build a better horse

We've got wild horse stock available, but we may want to start domesticating them and breeding them for useful characteristics like pulling ploughs.

[otolith]

FlyingMeeces said:

I'm probably good for some social structural stuff - health, social care, education.

The job will be persuading those healthy, nondisabled adults who do not have kids of the value of the above…

Ah, good, those are useful. You can be in charge of organising the slave mines, to which we will be sending anyone who doesn't know how to do something useful

[Monkeylegend]

We could even build a racetrack and race them seeing as this is going to become a forum that's interested in speed.

[bigandclever]

PixelpeepS3 said:

Easy - plan a trip every month to Area 57 and pass off some more alien tech as our own?

Cool, but you might have more success if you go to Area 51 for ET's gadgets.