{"product_id":"the-knowledge-how-to-rebuild-our-world-from-scratch","title":"The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow 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 possiblea 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 latestor even the most basictechnology 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 cant 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 doesnt just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them allthe 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44966839648309,"sku":"ByrdShop_159420523X","price":86.59,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781594205231.jpg?v=1770582997","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-knowledge-how-to-rebuild-our-world-from-scratch","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}