The Knowledge

How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch

By: Lewis Dartnell

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2014 Lewis Dartnell (P)2014 Tantor

Enlightening

Worthy of everyone's time! Great text for all high schools. I'll read again to retain more of this. I highly recommend!

This Is an AMAZING book

I highly, highly recommend this book. It has a conceit, which is that you are basically asked to imagine that the world has all but ended, at least as we know it, and that you are one of the few survivors. How are you and your significantly-reduced-in-number fellow humans going to bring the world up to the level of civilization the world was at before the imagined catastrophe?

The author, in precise, finished prose that is never overweening, nor offputtingly jocular (but also never dull) takes the listener on a journey toward the things that would need to be done to re-establish civilization by retracing the steps of our forbears--the ones, in particular, which progressively lead to greater and greater degrees of technological progress.

Along the way, you'll learn so many fascinating things about farming, weaving, metallurgy, chemistry, anatomy, and tons more.

I hasten to add that the narration was also superb.

I want book two!!

I learned more in this book than all my highschool science classes put together. I want John Lee to write a second book that goes more in-depth!

Outstanding book

This really is a genuine guide on how to survive and rebuild after an apocalypse. It’s awesome.

First of all, I will make my kids read this when they are old enough for pure education.

Second I will buy about five copies and keep them in watertight containers at various locations around the places I live and visit. You just never know.

Third - this book really really makes you appreciate all that humanity has achieved over the past 10,000 years. We live lives of abundance and comfort today relative to 99% of the time that Homo sapiens has existed.

If I have to make one critique it is that warfare and war fighting are left out of the book. The book does a great job of describing how survivors of a cataclysm could rebuild science and technology slowly over time. But in such a scenario there might be multiple bands of people doing this, in an environment of poor communication and loss of trust. There are likely to be battles and wars as humans struggle to survive with limited technologies, or as they fight over the ability to scavenge in certain areas. War is as old as humans, sadly. One must not assume that it won’t be part of the landscape of a post-apocalyptic environment. How do you ensure security so that your group of survivors have the means to pursue scientific development? How do you even govern a small group of people - even a few dozen? And as your surviving society scales, how would you organize your government such that the problems that led to the downfall of the previous technological civilization do not afflict your own primitive state? These would be an additional set of tough questions to answer for the survivors, especially those who would be leaders among them.

The narration quality was great here too - loved the narrator’s accent.

A Great Read

As a chemist I greatly enjoyed this book, as it largely focused on the use of inorganic chemistry to rebuild society.

So much better than I hoped

This is an extremely engaging read filled with information I never even thought of before. I'd really like to turn some of this information into science experiments for my children. I can't recommend this book enough even if you only have a passing interest in the science that underpins our world.

I see the world differently now

That was amazing. I consider myself quite knowledgeable and knew a reasonably amount of the content covered, but was still blown away by some of the amazing knowledge that humanity has discovered and that the author has put together so well.

This way of thinking about the world and learning could be a great way for getting kids into science. There should be classes covering this.

I THOUGHT I was smart...

Read/Listen to this carefully, and you, too, can be the Eugene of your zombie apocalypse group. Just make sure you keep that mullet fresh.

Essential post-apocalyptic reading

It was dry at times, but I am sure it will come come in handy after the upcoming zombie apocalypse.

Strangely Reassuring...

Would you listen to The Knowledge again? Why?

Parts of this book goes into significant detail on how to derive raw chemicals and other foundational technologies which become a basis for numerous reconstruction efforts. It's hard to understand all of this detail out of a single listening session, and I will likely refer back to certain chapters at least a few more times to help me understand.

What other book might you compare The Knowledge to and why?

I can't think of any book like The Knowledge. The foundations of the book are similar to Hollywood movies like "I am Legend" and "Mad Max", but I've never read another book about rebuilding civilization after an apocalypse.

What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Hearing this book through John Lee's performance was strangely reassuring. In an era keen to highlight all the horrors of the world every day on the 24/7 news channels, it often seems like civilization is on the brink of apocalypse and the natural reaction is to prevent this at all costs. From John Lee's performance, it was as if "apocalypse happens", and here's what you do next.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Some of the ideas in the book were "aha" moments for how the world works today, and how it could work.