8 ms·

This reminds me, I've been toying with the idea of starting a github repository for survival and rebuilding society if a major SHTF scenario occurred. It would

by daenz 6y ago

This reminds me, I've been toying with the idea of starting a github repository for survival and rebuilding society if a major SHTF scenario occurred. It would be crowdsourced and bake-able into an ebook for offline reading. Anybody interested in it as a "Show HN" post?

throw0101a 6y ago
> […] repository for survival and rebuilding society if a major SHTF scenario occurred. There's a book (ISBN 978-0143127048): > Maybe it was a viral pandemic, or an asteroid strike, or perhaps nuclear war. Whatever the cause, the world as we know it has ended and you and the other survivors must start again. What key knowledge would you need to start rebuilding civilisation from scratch? > Once you’ve scavenged what you can, how do you begin producing the essentials? How do you grow food, generate power, prepare medicines, or get metal out of rocks? Could you avert another Dark Ages or take shortcuts to accelerate redevelopment? * http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/ http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/ Of course it's at layman's level of understanding, so further resources would be needed to get all the details.
- daenz 6y ago
  This would be a great starting point for the repo. The goal would be to have this layman-level knowledge like this and then flesh out the extreme technical details by crowdsourcing verified experts. I'm especially interested in how to organize traumatized people in a productive way, since that will likely be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome.
  - jdironman 6y ago
    Like a wikipedia, but condensed, useful, and navigable. Preferably able to store offline / locally or decentralized. Would have to identify what basis is necessary for rebuild and what is luxury. A large majority of things today are simply luxury. I love the idea of it though and would def try and contribute somehow even though my skill and knowledge base isnt comparable to others.
    - input_sh 6y ago
      Plenty of projects like that. Here's one: https://github.com/ligi/SurvivalManual https://github.com/ligi/SurvivalManual
    - marvin 6y ago
      An offline dump of Wikipedia would be a valuable addition to such a library. I've been thinking of storing something like this on a durable laptop stored in a Faraday cage, along with solar chargers and so on.
- messe 6y ago
  > get metal out of rocks? I'd imagine that prioritising getting metal out of old components would be a more efficient process. It's my understanding that there aren't many easily accessible metal deposits left, as there would have been thousands of years ago.
  - throw0101a 6y ago
    > I'd imagine that prioritising getting metal out of old components would be a more efficient process. Covered in the book: recycle first, especially early in the post-collapse world when there may be a lot of stuff just sitting around.
- alasdair_ 6y ago
  Protip: order the paper version. I suspect having a working, charged Kindle may be difficult in the event the book is actually required.
pronoiac 6y ago
You might like Ryan North's "How to Invent Everything," the survival guide for the stranded time traveller: https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/ https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/
StrangeDoctor 6y ago
A project in a similar vein https://blog.longnow.org/02014/02/06/manual-for-civilization-begins/ https://blog.longnow.org/02014/02/06/manual-for-civilization...
ramzeus 6y ago
Wikipedia is a quite good repository of all sorts of information. You can always clone that at put it on your computer for offline viewing.
- noir_lord 6y ago
  You can also make a proper book[1] from a series of wikipedia articles (mixing and matching what you want) to generate a properly indexed book. Laser print that on acid-free archival quality paper, bind and put in a dark, dry place and it'll outlive us all. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books
jnurmine 6y ago
If such a major SHTF happens that it warrants rebuilding the society and figuring out how to survive, then Github will be down, internet will be a rare occurence and your computer isn't likely to work for very long either. Electronic distribution and consumption of media isn't very resilient if one expects a large-scale SHTF event. For such a scenario, it'd be better to pump out tons of copies as cheap paperback books. Of course, this depends on the definition and scale of the SHTF. Personally I don't think it's much of an SHTF if one still can consult e-books in any form.
- skummetmaelk 6y ago
  Imagine that scene from Planet of the Apes where Gary Oldman powers up an old broken iPad. But instead of looking at pictures of his family he opens up a digital copy of "how to rebuild society after the end of the world".
- m463 6y ago
  But although github is centralized, git is distributed. and tcp/ip was literally built for nuclear war. This would be like tech prepper paradise. We could sync our tech trees and rebuild!
  - jnurmine 6y ago
    Just because TCP/IP was made to be robust enough to survive holes in the network topology caused by nuclear bomb devastation, it doesn't really mean that TCP/IP networks would magically keep on working after a large-scale nuclear war. I mean, during a nuclear war, the networks would only need to stay working until a counterattack could be coordinated and launched. After that point, the devastation would be so large planetwide that I think any potential TCP/IP users roaming the irradiated wastelands looking for food while coughing up blood would have other things on their mind than network access in any case. For smaller scale events, sure, but while the networking design might be robustness-focused, there is still a huge amount of auxiliary stuff required, these need power and cooling, maintenance and administration, repairs, and so on. Some parts of the internet system might be robust and resilient, but the whole system certainly isn't.
DarthGhandi 6y ago
You can find a lot of good resources/ideas for this in the prepping community.
aruggirello 6y ago
I'd recommend you check out Kiwix [1], an app but also a decade-old effort to make portable, offline working wikipedia copies. Coupled with a decent phone/tablet and there you have it... Or maybe you're more inclined towards a "FM 21-76 US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL" kind of project? [1] https://www.kiwix.org/en/ https://www.kiwix.org/en/

by daenz 6y ago

throw0101a 6y ago

> […] repository for survival and rebuilding society if a major SHTF scenario occurred. There's a book (ISBN 978-0143127048): > Maybe it was a viral pandemic, or an asteroid strike, or perhaps nuclear war. Whatever the cause, the world as we know it has ended and you and the other survivors must start again. What key knowledge would you need to start rebuilding civilisation from scratch? > Once you’ve scavenged what you can, how do you begin producing the essentials? How do you grow food, generate power, prepare medicines, or get metal out of rocks? Could you avert another Dark Ages or take shortcuts to accelerate redevelopment? * http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/ http://the-knowledge.org/en-gb/the-book/ Of course it's at layman's level of understanding, so further resources would be needed to get all the details.

daenz 6y ago
This would be a great starting point for the repo. The goal would be to have this layman-level knowledge like this and then flesh out the extreme technical details by crowdsourcing verified experts. I'm especially interested in how to organize traumatized people in a productive way, since that will likely be one of the biggest hurdles to overcome.
- jdironman 6y ago
  Like a wikipedia, but condensed, useful, and navigable. Preferably able to store offline / locally or decentralized. Would have to identify what basis is necessary for rebuild and what is luxury. A large majority of things today are simply luxury. I love the idea of it though and would def try and contribute somehow even though my skill and knowledge base isnt comparable to others.
  - input_sh 6y ago
    Plenty of projects like that. Here's one: https://github.com/ligi/SurvivalManual https://github.com/ligi/SurvivalManual
  - marvin 6y ago
    An offline dump of Wikipedia would be a valuable addition to such a library. I've been thinking of storing something like this on a durable laptop stored in a Faraday cage, along with solar chargers and so on.
messe 6y ago
> get metal out of rocks? I'd imagine that prioritising getting metal out of old components would be a more efficient process. It's my understanding that there aren't many easily accessible metal deposits left, as there would have been thousands of years ago.
- throw0101a 6y ago
  > I'd imagine that prioritising getting metal out of old components would be a more efficient process. Covered in the book: recycle first, especially early in the post-collapse world when there may be a lot of stuff just sitting around.
alasdair_ 6y ago
Protip: order the paper version. I suspect having a working, charged Kindle may be difficult in the event the book is actually required.

pronoiac 6y ago

You might like Ryan North's "How to Invent Everything," the survival guide for the stranded time traveller: https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/ https://www.howtoinventeverything.com/

StrangeDoctor 6y ago

A project in a similar vein https://blog.longnow.org/02014/02/06/manual-for-civilization-begins/ https://blog.longnow.org/02014/02/06/manual-for-civilization...

ramzeus 6y ago

Wikipedia is a quite good repository of all sorts of information. You can always clone that at put it on your computer for offline viewing.

noir_lord 6y ago
You can also make a proper book[1] from a series of wikipedia articles (mixing and matching what you want) to generate a properly indexed book. Laser print that on acid-free archival quality paper, bind and put in a dark, dry place and it'll outlive us all. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Books

jnurmine 6y ago

If such a major SHTF happens that it warrants rebuilding the society and figuring out how to survive, then Github will be down, internet will be a rare occurence and your computer isn't likely to work for very long either. Electronic distribution and consumption of media isn't very resilient if one expects a large-scale SHTF event. For such a scenario, it'd be better to pump out tons of copies as cheap paperback books. Of course, this depends on the definition and scale of the SHTF. Personally I don't think it's much of an SHTF if one still can consult e-books in any form.

skummetmaelk 6y ago
Imagine that scene from Planet of the Apes where Gary Oldman powers up an old broken iPad. But instead of looking at pictures of his family he opens up a digital copy of "how to rebuild society after the end of the world".
m463 6y ago
But although github is centralized, git is distributed. and tcp/ip was literally built for nuclear war. This would be like tech prepper paradise. We could sync our tech trees and rebuild!
- jnurmine 6y ago
  Just because TCP/IP was made to be robust enough to survive holes in the network topology caused by nuclear bomb devastation, it doesn't really mean that TCP/IP networks would magically keep on working after a large-scale nuclear war. I mean, during a nuclear war, the networks would only need to stay working until a counterattack could be coordinated and launched. After that point, the devastation would be so large planetwide that I think any potential TCP/IP users roaming the irradiated wastelands looking for food while coughing up blood would have other things on their mind than network access in any case. For smaller scale events, sure, but while the networking design might be robustness-focused, there is still a huge amount of auxiliary stuff required, these need power and cooling, maintenance and administration, repairs, and so on. Some parts of the internet system might be robust and resilient, but the whole system certainly isn't.

DarthGhandi 6y ago

You can find a lot of good resources/ideas for this in the prepping community.

aruggirello 6y ago

I'd recommend you check out Kiwix [1], an app but also a decade-old effort to make portable, offline working wikipedia copies. Coupled with a decent phone/tablet and there you have it... Or maybe you're more inclined towards a "FM 21-76 US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL" kind of project? [1] https://www.kiwix.org/en/ https://www.kiwix.org/en/