How do you build a civilization from scratch?

I don't know about you, but I have often wondered about the ultimate consequence of an apocalpytic scenario in which all of humanity's knowledge is lost along with the vast majority of humanity as well. Say, straight out of a sci-fi movie, the Earth's core becomes unstable in a short period of time and it eventually explodes. The only people who manage to escape are the few extremely lucky ones who get to reach far away from the earth in spaceships to avoid destruction*.

Now assume that the bunch of eclectic survivors consists of a few scientists, and maybe some authority figures. All they have left is some computers and a small collection of books--that is, if they remembered to bring any. Assuming that the internet would exist only if the servers on the Earth would be there, the would not have internet. Assuming that these people who got to escape the catastrophe had sufficient time to think about what they would need to rebuild a civilization, they would have predicted that they would need vast amounts of basic knowledge in the form of encyclopedias and basic science text books.

In such a scenario, the only a long-term hope to reestablish civilization if the survivors can find an inhabitable planet or a moon of a gas giant soon enough so that they don't die within the spaceship(s) that they are in already. Let's assume that there is such a place and the survivors have the technology to travel fast enough to reach there, and that they reach the destination. Can they reinvent the combustion engine or a refrigerator? Would they know the basics of the thermodynamics to make things work? Would they know how to build a home that will withstand the climatic conditions of the planet? Would they know how to make new glass, paper, steel, fuel, etc.? Would they know how to efficiently start agriculture or make weapons for hunting? Would they know enough about elementary pharmacology to synthesize medicines to protect themselves from infections?

If you think that this will all be difficult, what if they did not have the time to take in any material for reference? What if they had to start things from scratch? And what if only a few children who have not learned anything are the only survivors? Would they be able to think up all the inventions that we have made over last 50,000 odd years? In any of these scenarios, how long would it take to reach a level of technology that we now take for granted?

Of course, no one will know the exact answer to any of these questions. My guess is that humanity must think of a way to deposit all the knowledge that we have gained at several locations--on Earth and outside it--to ensure that such a thing does not take place. I don't know the exact way, but the planning must be started soon! What do you think?

The reason why I thought of writing this post now is because I heard an interview with Lewis Dartnell, the author of the book The Knowledge: How To Rebuild Our World From Scratch, on Quirks and Quarks, hosted by Bob McDonald on CBS Radio. Mr. Dartnell has written the book for practically the same situation. This is a link to a review of the book. It's a must-have more than a must-read, I guess, but the only thing I'm not sure if whether I should buy it in a hard copy of download it on my Kindle.

(PS: Yes, I realize that this is just like the Battlestar Galactica plot.)

Additions to my WHILTHS List from the Stargate universe

As I wrote in my last post, I quite urgently need to update my With Him I’d Like To Have Sex (WHLTHS) list. Considering that the last few months have been dominated by my discovery of the Stargate franchise and consumption of related content, it is most pertinent to add a four delectable men from the Stargate content what I have watched so far.

1. Richard Dean Anderson (older version) as Captain Jack O’Neill in SGU

This may come as a surprise, because, to be honest, Richard Dean Anderson in SG-1 is really attractive. But I got goose-bumps when I watched the SGU pilot when the now aged Captain knocks on the door of a mathematician geek boy Eli Wallace asking him to join the team. The most attractive aspects are the accent and the sarcasm.

Captain O’Neill in SGU

Captain O’Neill in SG1

2. Tony Amandola as Bra’tac from Chulak from SG1

This character is the prototype of my tastes – rugged, coarse features, strong masculine voice, and the balded head/silver goatee.

 

3. Erick Avari as Kasuf as the Leader of Abydonians in Stargate (1994) and SG1

He’s actually the first among this list who I really fell for, primarily because he was the only eye candy on the film Starage (1994) for me.

4. Don S. Davis as George S. Hammond or Hammond of Texas

His character has almost everything that I go for: power, authority, wisdom, righteousness, baldness, shortness, and, and of course, the accent. Below the photographs, you will find a YouTube vide where Master Bra’tac addresses him as Hammond of Texas for the first time.



(PS: I think I’m about 20% through the entire Stargate catalogue on offer. The movie Stargate (1994), 3 seasons and some of Stargate SG1, and most of the first season of SGU Stargate Universe. This is quite strange because I started with SGU. After the pilot, I was so hooked on to the concept that I decided that I had to go the Star Wars/Planet of The Apes way of watching sci-fi series. So I started from the movie that kicked everything off and the follow-up series. The rest of the episodes of SGU have been watched with the BF – he wants us to watch something or the other every night and we have to find new things that we both can stand.)

The Variable Man by Philip K. Dick

I don’t know how many of you love sci-fi as a genre in fiction. I also don’t know how many of you are into reading short-stories in this genre. For those who haven’t tried either, a sci-fi short story is a best story to start with. The best one in my opinion is undeniably “Nightfall” by the legend Isaac Asimov.

Asimov has always been my favorite sci-fi author – the Foundation series and other classics such as I, Robot. Arthur C. Clarke comes in as a close second with the 2001: Space Odyssey and the Rama series. But that was about it for me. I had never explored anything beyond these two.

Today, I did. Thanks to my new phone. Thanks to e-books. I read “The Variable Man” by Philip K. Dick. It’s a marvelous short story, almost at the level of Nightfall. I don’t want to give anything away, and so I’m going to just ask you to download it and read it. Free.

I hope you are pleasantly surprised!

Judgment Day

Today, April 21st 2011, is the latest date in the series of postponed dates for the Judgement Day from the Terminator franchise. Judgment day is the day when Skynet, the supercomputer system comes to realize about its own existence and launches a nuclear attack on humanity, ending up controlling them with robots.

Nothing has happened yet. I think Sarah Connor and Arnold Schwarzenegger have managed to avert/postpone this eventuality. But honestly, till when?

Planet of the Apes

Finally, I managed to track down the classic sci-fi pentology: Planet of the Apes. I’m not going to bore you with details about each movie. I have assigned the following ratings for the movies: Planet of the Apes (5*), Beneath the Planet of the Apes (3*), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (4*), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (3*), Battle for the Planet of the Apes (3.5*).





Here are the most important points about the movies which I thought would make the series a must-watch for all movie fanatics.

• I don’t want a spoiler here—The first movie’s ending is dramatic and depressing!
• Time dilation, a phenomenon of the theory of relativity, is put majestically to use in this movie series.
• The religious/scientific views of the ape society mirror the views of conservative theists.
• The ethical/moral treatment of humans by apes (and by humans to the apes in the sequels) is classic commentary on what’s wrong with scientific research.

Here are my negative points about the series.

• The social structure of the apes as assigned by different colors of clothing is boring.
• The incredible way in which the apes evolved to learn language but not improve posture is disturbing.

I’m not even starting to mention about the plotholes, but there are many. But watch this series if you are sci-fi fan. Watch at the least the first movie!

The Terminator Series

When I watched Terminator Salvation, I realized what I had missed by not watching the first three installments of this wonderful movie franchise. Many of my friends have insisted that The Terminator, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2) are movies that defined the genre of sci-fi movie-making. I, had somehow managed to evade these classics.



Not anymore! I watched the two James Cameron-directed classic Terminator of movies and Terminator: Rise of the Machines last week. And I must say, they are movies that I should have watched a long long time back. But there are a few points on which I differ from the usual public opinion about the Terminator franchise.

I'm giving The Terminator (T1) 4.5*, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2) 4*, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (T3) 3*.

• First of all, Terminator is the best movie of the lot. The action and the concept gets predictable as the franchise wears on.
• Some people believe that alterations of the timeline and future by time travel-related complications in movies/television were first showcased in Terminator. That’s obviously not true. At the very least, X-men (in comics) and Planet of the Apes in movies have had it before Terminator. The one is X-men is so much more plausible and acceptable and without plot holes.
• Terminator Salvation isn’t such a bad movie. Conceptually, it is better than T3 at the very least. The idea of a Cyberdyne reverse reverse-engineered (sic) android played by Sam Worthington is brilliant.

After watching the series, I have some puzzling timeline-related questions.

• In Terminator, it is claimed that the time-traveling machine has been destroyed. How come Terminators are sent back in time for the second and third installments?
• Also, in Terminator, it’s mentioned that nothing other than living tissue can be sent through the machine. The Terminators are far from just living tissue. In fact the model T-X is pure metal alloy? So how does that work?

This is why I still love my flawless time-travel storylines from X-men!