Over the last couple of months, I've posted the seven categories of knowledge for the Leibowitz Society. These are Agriculture, Medicine, Defense, Civil Engineering, Science, Culture and Politics (which I'm thinking about changing to "Civics"). The intent of defining these seven areas -- and the subcategories that comprise them -- is to begin building the "Codex Universalis" against them, as well as creating a set of categories for which to start storing whole written works in the "Respository."
While I think the categories are well-defined and the listing is reasonably complete with regard to subcategories, I still need help from people as far as suggestions for what else needs to be included in these categories. There has been some helpful feedback, when people suggested that permaculture be included as part of the agriculture category, but there hasn't been much said about the other categories. I have made sure that anonymous comments are enabled so that people who have something to say but are worried about others reactions to their participation will have nothing to worry about, too.
On top of suggestions for how to improve the categories, I need help from people who are willing to volunteer some time to write the entries for the Codex Universalis. Recall that the Codex is a survey-level guide to knowledge in this various content areas and is intended to be a compact guide and starting point into the Repository, as well as a standalone piece that is intended to help build stable communities and be a reference for individual members of the Society. Most of the entries should be between 5 to 20 pages long, depending on the complexity of the category. Each entry should not contain pictures or illustrations and should be as culture-independent as possible. The entries should also not contain any copyrighted information and ideally would include information that could be attributed to a variety of sources. While I could conceivably write all of these entries myself, it would take a long time and my intent is to have the Leibowitz Society materials available as soon as possible, given our ever-increasing rate of decline. Once people start submitting materials, I will make them available as downloads somewhere there is free document storage.
The various subcategories map directly to categories of knowledge in the Repository as well. I need suggestions from people on what to include in the categories (preferably linked to large, reputable sites where people can purchase the volumes directly). For example, in the Culture category, I have seen a half dozen books in the stores on clearance which would work well to represent the history entry. I will say that if a certain subject appeals to a person, then having more than one history volume is ideal. In fact, multiple volumes on each of the subject areas as appropriate seems reasonable.
Folks, the news is not getting better out there and if you believe at all that we are on the edge of entering a new Dark Age -- even if you believe there is still the possibility of a way out -- then it is imperative to start taking these steps. If we save personal supplies and are able to grow our own food, then we can subsist. If we can save the knowledge and spread it to others, then we will have planted the seeds for all humanity to thrive once more after the winter.
Please add a category for town planning and architecture. Perhaps some lessons from Traditional Neighborhood Developments (TOD) will prove useful in rebuilding our communities. Maybe that way, we won't repeat the same mistakes of the past.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions - I decided to go ahead and split this between Civics and Civil Engineering. Civics will have a section for Town Planning and Civil Engineering will have a section for architecture to support this. I think that there is a good chance that this sort of order may reassert itself during the rebuilding phase, but a double-dose of encouraging efficient town planning is something that would be useful, especially as people may concentrate on lower-level function first and ignore long-term considerations.
ReplyDeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteI could take on the Agriculture section (I have an undergrad degree in Ag), and would also like to report on bygone tools and technology (using the Mercer Museum in Doylestown as a source).
Thanks again for doing this!
Scott in Bucks County
Scott,
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that each of the subcategories is going to be around 5-20 pages worth of information, possibly along with additional reference texts, as needed, so it would be a lot of work to write out the information for each subcategory.
There are some people involved in permaculture who have posted as well -- I don't know what your experience is with it or what they intend their level of involvement to be, but there's other areas which can be done first. I think probably starting with the Staple Crops area, Field Care and Crop Rotation using pre-modern methods and Animal Husbandry using pre-modern methods would be good places to start. Again, these are intended to be "survey level" introductions to the subject matter, with the intent of being able to be a basic fall-back that a community or individual member can use to start a process or keep it going.
I think that as time goes on, and people have input, we're going to discover new angles of looking at some of these things as well as things which could be covered differently. That seems like a good start, however.
-John
May I humbly suggest that you're missing something very important? I would call it "homekeeping". You have some of the components under Agriculture, but running a non-mechanized home in an era of limited access to the basics like food, brooms, cooking utensils and cleaning supplies is going to be a real challenge. Not to mention that there are way too many people out there who don't know how to cook from scratch, sew by hand, weave cloth, build a hand-powered washing machine--I'm afraid the list is pretty much endless. Sure, people know how to can food, but what will they do if they have to make their own vinegar first? They know how to sweep a floor, but can they make a broom? I submit that basic survival knowledge should be the first thing the Society tackles (or at least one of its highest priorities) because if people can't manage these day-to-day living tasks, the rest of the stuff won't do them any good.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteThe idea of basic housekeeping is a very good one and I admit it hadn't occurred to me (this is why I ask for help -- I am only one person with one brain :) ).
Would you be interested in creating some content along these lines? While I haven't yet posted writer's guidelines for content, it should be roughly 5 to 20 pages, not using any copyrighted material or illustrations.
-John
John, while I'm flattered to be asked,it's already been done very well by a woman named Carla Emery. Her book is called "The Encyclopedia of Country Living". I'm not sure why you don't want to use copyrighted material, but as I read what you have listed for topics, I can tell you that a number of writers have already covered pretty much everything you want to write as it relates to survival skills, agriculture, animal husbandry, basic building, old tools and crafts. For example, Gene Logsdon has a number of books like "Small Scale Grain Raising" and "Forgotten Crafts". There are quite a few of these books that are old enough to be in the public domain. There are many others that would answer the needs of almost everyone in the world to come. It is quite possible that time is short, and starting over from scratch may not be the best way to preserve this knowledge, especially if your writers will be starting from the beginning to do the research and find their material and have no personal experience in what they are writing. I personally am focused on acquiring the knowledge I don't have; building up stocks of things like hand tools and open-pollinated seeds; getting my breeding animals and poultry in place and stockpiling things I expect will be in short supply. I am also buying or trading for all the books I expect to need for reference. Because I consider these activities to be critical for the long-term survival of my family, I must decline your kind offer. This old farm wife is too busy working on survival!
ReplyDeleteI'll list Carla Emery's work as a recommended work for the Repository once I start compiling that list. The reason for not using copyrighted material is that, at some point, I anticipate making the Codex available in a published/printed form, as well as reproducing it for free online and copyrighted material would obviously cause problems. However, since the contents of the Repository are works that are acquired individually by people, there's no problem using it there.
ReplyDeleteThe Codex itself is basically intended to be a go-to source for people who need a portable source of knowledge and is intended to aid both the individual and communities in survival efforts, while the Repository is each member's (or group of members) collection of printed reference works that are the real treasure trove of information. It's intended that the Codex is relatively portable (7 books) while the Repository is a private library. I guess the analogy would be that the Codex would be like a field guide to birds, while the Repository is an exhaustive scientific library on ornithology. If you look at the very first blog post, I tried to make the distinction clear, but I hope this explanation helps.
-John
In addition to a central repository of digital documents, we can accumulate personal and regional repositories of actual books. I just got "The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times. Including the five crops you need to survive and thrive- potatoes, corn, beans, squash, and eggs." By Carol Deppe, Chelsea Green Publishing. 2010.
ReplyDeleteKept dry, ink on paper should last for generations. At least, long enough for their lessons to be learned for an oral tradition.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike -- it is the intent of the Leibowitz society to create a physical repository of modern printed works. In essence, these are the personal or group libraries of people who are following the plan of the Society. The eventual seven volumes of the Codex Universalis are not going to be enough information at all to preserve modern society's knowledge and to redistribute it at some point, so they are basically intended to be a day to day manual and serve as a reference point for works found in the future and so on.
The Repository itself is intended to hold everything from books on chemistry to music to art to books on botany and so on as people accumulate these works over time. My current thinking is that surplus books in bookstores often cover large pieces of good material (I found an excellent world history book for $6 on acid-free paper the other day, for example), and previous edition college textbooks are also often a good source. A prior-edition chemistry book can go for maybe $10 and be a fairly complete reference, while the current edition might sell for $100 and offer nothing more than a few new pages and a different introduction (maybe I'll post a rant about college textbooks in the future).
-John
Looks to me like this is a useful blog to subscribe to. Some of your ideas are excellent and thought provoking. If you're open to sharing, I've written an article about prserving your garden crops (Depression Era Style) which I learned at a survivor's knee. Read it here: http://mschaut.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/great-depression-arts-storing-garden-crops/ and I hope that communities and groups of people intent on surviving this mess will ahare!
ReplyDeleteMargaret,
ReplyDeleteYou have an interesting blog and I appreciate the link and I would like to incorporate the material into the food storage subsection if you don't mind. My parents were both (young) survivors of the Great Depression and while we lived in a relatively suburban area, we did have a functional root cellar, something that I suppose was an artifact of a time in America when people did risk starvation if they didn't have some food stored.
You are correct that the sharing of information is going to be vital to surviving and rebuilding during the coming collapse. It's my hope that the plan laid out by the Leibowitz Society will be increasingly adopted as people realize the need to store knowledge as well as just supplies. Unfortunately, with the growing instability in the monetary system, it looks like a Weimar-style event is getting increasingly closer.
-John