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What would your contribution be for a book put together to restart a a civilization? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The title is a bit over dramatic but, per the title, if you could contribute with one piece of knowledge to a book that every single individual should learn from in order to kickstart a civilization, what would be yours?

My personal choice would be the process of soap making, from scratch.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I can't help but feel soap making itself wouldn't be as much use as why/when to use it?

Mixing oil with the ashy water (which is as simple as soap's gonna get) is reasonably easy to do and so useful that even without a civilisation people would probably be doing it either through discovery or by keeping doing it?

I think things like "how to build a wooden bridge so it will hold a laden cart and not fall down" are more likely to be lost without civilisation while still being incredibly useful (although I can't say I'd be very good for that)

I might add a section on refrigeration methods like zeers or wind towers/yakhchāls if the civilisation would be somewhere hot and dry, otherwise maybe something on using rivers for powering looms, mills etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I was going to add "and notion of basic hygiene" but refrained from it as it be breaking my own guideline.

Amendement: one thing, with the necessary context to make understable to role in the civilization

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think the instructions for how to make soap would be less important to a civilization than why to make soap. Germ theory and basic hygiene practices would save a lot of lives.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

I feel like we’re still working on this lol. The amount of people who don’t properly wash their hands is really nasty.