Posted: 4/9/2004 11:17:22 AM EDT
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I was intrigued by the older movie "The time machine" where the hero goes back and retrieves three books to take with him to the future. If it were up to you to rebuild society, which five books would you take? |
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Then I would concentrate on "how to" books detailing basic survival topics as well as engineering/ construction/ building principles, since you can't live in a hut forever, and it sure beats having to redevelop every scientific principle that was lost. One has to wonder , for instance,how far back the Dark Ages set us and how much scientific thought and learning was lost with the fall of the Egyptians,Greeks and later the Romans, not to mention every other society lost to "pre-history". I would also take some basic compendium of information such as the Lincoln Library so that everything that went before is not totally forgotten. Five books makes it kind of tough to bring along any sort of collection of notable fictional literature of all genres; its a shame to think about how much that would hurt to lose all of that. |
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Hmmm... 1. Scriptures 2. Book covering the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other early american laws. 3. Some sort of "How To" technical book for basic essential info on agriculture and technology. That old movie was a great one. I used to watch it with my dad as a little kid. |
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I sure wouldn't bring the Bible, it has screwed up society for centuries. I think I would take: 1) a basic law book. 2) a book on going back to basics/going rural. 3) a guide to english, maybe combined dictionary/thesaurus. 4) a one volume encyclopedia 5) a book on basic inventions |
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Quoted: three books not five, re read the post or watch the movie Can You Read? Quoted: I was intrigued by the older movie "The time machine" where the hero goes back and retrieves three books to take with him to the future. If it were up to you to rebuild society, [red]which five books would you take?[/red] |
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The movie did say three books, but I decided to add a few more. I think I'd take; 1. The Holy Bible - important for spiritual devolpment and insential for Democratic values. 2. A book of Aesop's fables. - both as a reader for kids and to teach common sense. 3. A dictionary - assuming English will be used. 4. Poor Richard's almanac - again as a reader for kids and to teach important values. 5. The Declaration of Independence - To inspire democratic virture. |
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Quoted: blackrifle51 In that case, I'll have to agree with your picks, except for the last one and replace the Declaration of Independence with the U.S. Constitution. alpo, The constitution is a legal document which created and authorized the Federal Government and gave it powers needed to govern. I think that a primitive society would not have need of this. But rather that they understand the philosophical and moral necessities for some form of government that respects democratic ideals. It many not be necessary to say, have a President or a bi-camerial legislative ect.. but that a government which is democratic. |
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Quoted: Quoted: blackrifle51 In that case, I'll have to agree with your picks, except for the last one and replace the Declaration of Independence with the U.S. Constitution. alpo, The constitution is a legal document which created and authorized the Federal Government and gave it powers needed to govern. I think that a primitive society would not have need of this. But rather that they understand the philosophical and moral necessities for some form of government that respects democratic ideals. It many not be necessary to say, have a President or a bi-camerial legislative ect.. but that a government which is democratic. Since both are actually documents rather than books, if you insist on bringing such material on a survival situation where every book counts against a bare mnimum total like 5, why not find a book that includes both , as well as other historical forms relating to government? A lot of poly sci college-level textbooks out there would have both documents, not to mention any compendium of US history. I believe my copy of the Lincoln LIbrary has both documents in it, for example. Personally, I would be less worried with religion and higher forms of government and concentrate on basic survival issues.... |
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Quoted: I sure wouldn't bring the Bible, it has screwed up society for centuries. Whatever... Anyway, without God how long do you think your civilization would go before they started worshipping golden cows, making live sacrifices to imaginary gods, etc? History shows us few civilizations that existed without some religeon. |
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Quoted: I sure wouldn't bring the Bible, it has screwed up society for centuries. I think I would take: 1) a basic law book. 2) a book on going back to basics/going rural. 3) a guide to english, maybe combined dictionary/thesaurus. 4) a one volume encyclopedia 5) a book on basic inventions Oh sure...you save them from religion but plague them with lawyers. That is pure evil. |
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Quoted: Quoted: I sure wouldn't bring the Bible, it has screwed up society for centuries. Whatever... Anyway, without God how long do you think your civilization would go before they started worshipping golden cows, making live sacrifices to imaginary gods, etc? History shows us few civilizations that existed without some religeon. After adopting Christianity in 379 (Theodosius I) the Roman Empire fell a mere 100 years later under Romulus Augustus in 475. |