4 ms·

The books which won't eventually be recreated are things like religious texts, philosophical works, legal books (laws, constitutions, court cases), and fiction

by cbd1984 12y ago

The books which won't eventually be recreated are things like religious texts, philosophical works, legal books (laws, constitutions, court cases), and fiction (including poetry). Therefore, unless we preserve those, they and everything they contain will be lost forever, even if we do eventually make it back to multi-core CPUs and string theory.

bsder 12y ago
I'm okay with most of this as they are solely products of a specific time. Most of these will disappear with time, anyway, even if civilization doesn't collapse. How many people have the ability to read Shakespeare let alone the Magna Carta? And, even if you gave someone the Magna Carta or the US Constitution, their value is in more how we don't obey the letter of those documents. What needs to be preserved are the fundamentals. The world has order and obeys rules even if you don't understand them right now. The world is made up of very small things that give the world it's order. Noise that comes out of your mouth can be copied to rock/clay/papyrus and given to other people over long distances. The nature of a hypothesis and a test is vitally important for moving forward instead of in circles.
- blumkvist 12y ago
  Socrates, Aristotle and Plato's work has been relevant for 2000 years and I don't see it becoming irrelevant any time soon. Same with Descarte, Kant and many, many more. Mankind's greatest goal and challenge is building a society. Building space rockets might help that, but they might not. One might argue that ancient Greece and Rome had better societies or at least equal to what we have today.
  - plinkplonk 12y ago
    "One might argue that ancient Greece and Rome had better societies or at least equal to what we have today" In both Greece and Rome, slavery was legal and women had next to no rights. Any society in the West today, with all its imperfections, is way better than anything in ancient Greece or Rome
    - blumkvist 12y ago
      Yeah, I guess if your slaves are a million miles away and you don't see them, it will make you sleep better. Even pretend they don't exist.
      - lake99 12y ago
        A million miles away? Farther than the moon? Sure. I'm confident they don't exist.
      - barking 12y ago
        Good point, I guess you're referring to 3rd world sweatshops
      - agumonkey 12y ago
        Something I've been thinking lately, western societies managed to divert our "bad" sides into opaque structures better than others.
      - icebraining 12y ago
        http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html
    - barking 12y ago
      Are we better people than our grandparents and in their turn are they better than theirs? On average, are people becoming better people over time? I don't think that's a given and that's what society is. Whatever system is in place it's human nature to game it. While we can have all sorts of inclusivity built in to the rules, people will always find ways to sidestep them. I'd say, as a society we're no better or worse than the Romans on average, we just have more stuff. The proof of the pudding is that people in the most primitive of societies are just as happy if not happier than middle class westerners
      - agumonkey 12y ago
        A weird reflex every generation has, is to provide a better life to their children. Even though most of the time, it's far from the case. Less developed countries send their kids to modern schools thinking a modern job will ensure a nice life, while I'm convinced that the parents life was full of human knowledge not taught anymore. Below a certain threshold, easier life doesn't mean better. Some rich folks don't let their children inherit for this reason.
  - abecedarius 12y ago
    I've read a good deal of Plato in translation (Socrates didn't write any books), and I'd eagerly trade all of Plato for an equal volume from Hipparchus, Herophilus, Ctesibius, Eratosthenes, Pytheas, Chrysippus, Eudoxus, Democritus, and lost works of Archimedes, Apollonius, Euclid ... I'd gladly trade it for a fraction of those. Aristotle I've only read a little of; he gets to survive, I guess, though I would go for at least a partial trade in his case too.

by cbd1984 12y ago

bsder 12y ago

I'm okay with most of this as they are solely products of a specific time. Most of these will disappear with time, anyway, even if civilization doesn't collapse. How many people have the ability to read Shakespeare let alone the Magna Carta? And, even if you gave someone the Magna Carta or the US Constitution, their value is in more how we don't obey the letter of those documents. What needs to be preserved are the fundamentals. The world has order and obeys rules even if you don't understand them right now. The world is made up of very small things that give the world it's order. Noise that comes out of your mouth can be copied to rock/clay/papyrus and given to other people over long distances. The nature of a hypothesis and a test is vitally important for moving forward instead of in circles.

blumkvist 12y ago
Socrates, Aristotle and Plato's work has been relevant for 2000 years and I don't see it becoming irrelevant any time soon. Same with Descarte, Kant and many, many more. Mankind's greatest goal and challenge is building a society. Building space rockets might help that, but they might not. One might argue that ancient Greece and Rome had better societies or at least equal to what we have today.
- plinkplonk 12y ago
  "One might argue that ancient Greece and Rome had better societies or at least equal to what we have today" In both Greece and Rome, slavery was legal and women had next to no rights. Any society in the West today, with all its imperfections, is way better than anything in ancient Greece or Rome
  - blumkvist 12y ago
    Yeah, I guess if your slaves are a million miles away and you don't see them, it will make you sleep better. Even pretend they don't exist.
    - lake99 12y ago
      A million miles away? Farther than the moon? Sure. I'm confident they don't exist.
    - barking 12y ago
      Good point, I guess you're referring to 3rd world sweatshops
    - agumonkey 12y ago
      Something I've been thinking lately, western societies managed to divert our "bad" sides into opaque structures better than others.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/smokey.html
  - barking 12y ago
    Are we better people than our grandparents and in their turn are they better than theirs? On average, are people becoming better people over time? I don't think that's a given and that's what society is. Whatever system is in place it's human nature to game it. While we can have all sorts of inclusivity built in to the rules, people will always find ways to sidestep them. I'd say, as a society we're no better or worse than the Romans on average, we just have more stuff. The proof of the pudding is that people in the most primitive of societies are just as happy if not happier than middle class westerners
    - agumonkey 12y ago
      A weird reflex every generation has, is to provide a better life to their children. Even though most of the time, it's far from the case. Less developed countries send their kids to modern schools thinking a modern job will ensure a nice life, while I'm convinced that the parents life was full of human knowledge not taught anymore. Below a certain threshold, easier life doesn't mean better. Some rich folks don't let their children inherit for this reason.
- abecedarius 12y ago
  I've read a good deal of Plato in translation (Socrates didn't write any books), and I'd eagerly trade all of Plato for an equal volume from Hipparchus, Herophilus, Ctesibius, Eratosthenes, Pytheas, Chrysippus, Eudoxus, Democritus, and lost works of Archimedes, Apollonius, Euclid ... I'd gladly trade it for a fraction of those. Aristotle I've only read a little of; he gets to survive, I guess, though I would go for at least a partial trade in his case too.