What three books would you have taken...

[Bettina]

I tried searching for this many times because I thought I posted this once before, but couldn't find it. Ignore this if it has been done already.

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In the movie........"The time machine"..........a young man goes a million years into the future only to see the world desolate and in utter ruins with only a small band of Humans living on the surface. These humans were fed daily with fruit to keep them fat and happy by the beast looking Morlocks who lived underground. These beasts were using the Humans for food. They were canibals.

 

The young man destroyed all the Morlocks but was now left with Humans who didn't know anything. So, he got back on his time machine, went back to his time, (about year 1900) and grabbed three books, then went back to live permanently as his time machine was destroyed.

 

What three books would you have taken......

 

Bettina

[MolecularMan14]

ANYTHING BUT THE BIBLE/TORAH/QURAN! Don't bring the burden of dogmatic religion on an otherwise blissful society. Sure, the teachings are morally sound, but the worship part would distract their societry from advancement, and create differed interpretations on things that were never meant to conflict. They're all meant to enlighten and inspire to help everyone else. Not to kill them all because you disagree.

So, any book with a good moral, but without the requirement of dogmatic worship. *If anyone has ever seen the episode of South Park in which Starvin' Marvin brings all of the Ethiopians to Marklar, but the missionaries try to convert all of the Marklar first - same scenario I think

[Callipygous]

encyclopedia. does that count as one book?

 

tao te ching. you can spend YEARS trying glean info from that book. and arive no where... or if your really creative you can come away wise.

 

and... : P i dont know... "Lamb: the gospel according to biff"? not for any special purpose, just my life without that book would be boring and dull by comparison.

[jdurg]

The Kama Sutra: This way we can ensure that more human beings will be created.

 

The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison: This book really shows how the way one treats others can have a huge impact on their life, and provides some 'moral values' to learn from.

 

The Lord Of The Rings: While this is just an epic fantasy, it teaches a lot about language, communication, loyalty, good and evil.

[Bettina]

encyclopedia. does that count as one book?

 

tao te ching. you can spend YEARS trying glean info from that book. and arive no where... or if your really creative you can come away wise.

 

and... : P i dont know... "Lamb: the gospel according to biff"? not for any special purpose' date=' just my life without that book would be boring and dull by comparison.[/quote']

 

Yes....they must be 3 separate books.....no book sets like britannica.

Remember, your trying to build a society...with just 3 books.

 

Bettina

[jdurg]

Ooops. My bad. My last two choices came AFTER 1900.

[Martin]

...a young man goes a million years into the future only to see the world desolate and in utter ruins with only a small band of Humans living on the surface. These humans were fed daily with fruit to keep them fat and happy by the beast looking Morlocks who lived underground. These beasts were using the Humans for food. They were canibals.

 

The young man destroyed all the Morlocks but was now left with Humans who didn't know anything. So' date=' he got back on his time machine, went back to his time, (about year 1900) and grabbed three books, then went back to live permanently as his time machine was destroyed.

...[/quote']

 

metalurgy is basic, and takes a long time to establish if you start from only stone and wood. even just finding raw materials like ore, and cutting down trees to make charcoal for smelting, is slow if you do not have iron tools to dig with and cut with.

 

boats and wagons are very hard to make if you do not have iron tools.

 

somebody mentioned an encyclopedia----there are ONE VOLUME encyclopedias, there are also one-volume books of practical "how it works" knowledge

 

I didnt read the HG Wells story Time Machine and I didnt see the movie so I dont know what is assumed. A lot depends on what kind of GARBAGE the destroyed Morlocks left behind.

 

did the Morlocks have metal tools? did the Morlocks leave behind them a blast furnace able to smelt iron from iron ore? or did they leave SCRAP METAL even, that could be re-used?

 

this planet was Earth, but a million years in the future. we do not know how recently there was a human civilization on the surface. Maybe the ordinary civilized humans left garbage dumps on the surface until fairly recently and those would contain scrap metal.

 

as a practical matter, a civilization's garbage is as important as its books.

a lot can be learned from it, and much can be re-used

 

so I would want to know what kind of scrap and debris was left around and then I would choose books to fill in the gaps in the garbage.

 

whatever books I chose, they would have a lot of pictures, because i would want to SHOW the other humans, not just read words (which often by themselves have no meaning)

 

it would be great if one could get to the level of having a functioning printing press, so then one could DUPLICATE whatever books one did have, and whatever manuals one could write oneself, from knowledge in one's own head.

 

a serious bottle neck is the DESEMINATION of knowledge. a lot of us know the basic "how it works" chemistry, metalurgy, electrical engineering, building, wheel-making stuff that civilization requires----we have basic knowledge in our heads, but how do you pass it on? you have to be able to print sheets of directions

 

so you need to be able to MAKE PAPER, and teach people to READ pieces of paper with directions printed on, and you have to be able to PRINT

you see the problem of desemination or communication is a big hurdle.

 

screw people who would take the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States to people who did not even know how to make an iron ax to cut down a tree and split wood

 

I love Thomas Jefferson too, but if you cannot split wood and make charcoal and smelt iron and do blacksmithery then you are up the creeks and wise words mean nothing

[swansont]

The Invisible Man' date=' by Ralph Ellison: This book really shows how the way one treats others can have a huge impact on their life, and provides some 'moral values' to learn from.

 

The Lord Of The Rings: While this is just an epic fantasy, it teaches a lot about language, communication, loyalty, good and evil.[/quote']

 

I don't think you want to bring literature, as such. Remember what happened on Star Trek in "A Piece of the Action" - left a book about Chicago ganglands, and they behaved as such. The Eloi would set up a belief system around the novels. I think it would be inevitable.

[Bettina]

Marvin....

 

The morlocks had nothing. They lived in underground caves and just ate humans. Nothing more than sharp stones to cut with.

 

The humans were programmed by the directions handed down to them generation after generation......To go to the shelter when the alarm sounded. So.....when the morlocks sounded the alarm (seemingly the only technology they had) the humans would rush to the entrance and go below. After 5 or 6 entered, the door closed and the others went back to their huts.

 

What three books.......

 

Bettina

[john5746]

I think I would try to help them help themselves:

 

1) Book on agriculture

2) Language - maybe spanish - english is messy

3) Math

 

I think I could handle the philosophy/ethics enough to get them started.

[quick silver]

the stand by stephen king.

any modern book on herbal medicine ( i don't know of any titles)

math