upvote
In a doomsday scenario one wouldn't need a "rebuild all of civilization" book, but more a "basics like building a fire, filtering water, repairing a car engine, basic wound treatment" and such book. Nobody is going to be building cathedrals, and factories and computers for a good while...
reply
> Nobody is going to be building cathedrals, and factories and computers for a good while...

Interesting mental exercise. It was explored in A Canticle for Leibowitz[0], novel in 3 parts (Fiat homo, fiat lux, fiat voluntas tua), the first set in the immediate post nuclear-war world, second 600 years after towards the end of the new middle ages, and the third 600 later in a typical futuristic scenario. The first part covers the religious efforts to preserve knowledge (even if said knowledge was not understood), and the second in the new renaissance from wielding such knowledge.

I wonder how LLMs, with their mistakes and all, would play a role in rebuilding civilization. Most media these days is not prepared for staying stable for 20 years, not sure how much and for how long it could be preserved. Perhaps mechanical hard drives in certain isolated environments?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

reply
And we did it all without a manual the first time, so it stands to reason we (or more accurately, our descendants) could figure it out.
reply
What so we gotta go through the middle ages again :(
reply
We did it in a pristine world the first time. The next time we do it in a world stripped of natural resources and easy energy with a collapsing biosphere soaked in poison and radioactive waste.

Not impossible but I doubt we get another Industrial Revolution.

reply
Yes.

https://a.co/d/0ieNUmhB (Not a referral link)

reply