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.

  • 1rre
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    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.

    • Xariphon@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      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.

      • Chobbes@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year 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.

        • Wahots@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Today I watched someone in an airport rinse one of their hands while holding a bag handle in the other. Then they struggled to get a paper towel for their shit covered hand as they walked out of the bathroom.

          We are fucked if we slip even a little, lol. People even know about germs these days and still only go through the gesture of washing without understanding why.

    • qyron@sopuli.xyzOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year 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