Maps

With the record heat this summer, attention is turning back toward the dormant Sun's re-awakening, and what this could do to the various electronic devices we've come to depend on. One segment of technology that would be very vulnerable to a solar storm would be satellites. Satellites themselves are used for military purposes, but are also used for communication and orienteering. How many of us now have GPS devices, either standalone units or phone-based apps, to do our navigation in the car, or on a boat? For that matter, how long are satellites in orbit going to be maintained after our industrial civilization begins to crack up?

The importance of navigation and mapping is not something new, and has been a subject of much effort over the centuries. In the time of the Renaissance, for example, early navigational books, called "Rutters," were essentially regarded as state secrets, for a person who knew how to get from one place on the globe to another would have a huge advantage in trade and military matters. We look at maps made from the age of discovery and think how laughably inaccurate they are, but forget that at the time, these were a huge leap over having no idea what was out there at all.

People will be quick to point out that maps are both a combination of physical and conceptual data. We can't readily change features like mountains or rivers, but roads and towns can vanish, be reloacted, and so on. This is particularly true of many places which have grown up simply because there was cheap money to build something there. I think most of us know of a few "roads to nowhere" that were always very lightly traveled and existed only because some politician was able to appropriate some money for it. Likewise, there are "bedroom communities" that are located in the middle of nowhere, complete with a shopping mall, that exist simply because nothing else was there and gasoline was cheaper than land at the time. How quickly will these places vanish? If Life After People is a guide, maybe within a generation, and nature will have reclaimed them.

On the other hand, physical features don't change as quickly, and settlements which have grown up around them are more likely to exist and be maintained, especially around places which have running water or have been settled for access to renewable resources (good farming soil, timber, etc). This pattern of settlement was particularly true back before the invention of automobiles, when everyone had to walk or ride a wagon. Effectively, this means that we can expect that some places will still continue to have some human habitation, regardless of what is happening on a larger scale. Think of them as "buckets," where people will simply go (or stay) because it makes sense to do so.

The importance of saving maps is something which might be seen with a skeptical eye at first, but I think it is important for both practical reasons, and for cultural ones. It is in the absence of information that the imagination runs wild, for better or worse, and I'd guess it would take around a generation for people to go back to thinking the earth was flat, without any contradictory evidence. Storing history is no different -- how many people think Hitler was a Union general during the Civil War? From a practical standpoint, if we accept that we are going to rebuild to a sustainable level after a collapse, knowing what is out there, and where it's located at, is going to make life much easier for people who are trying to "re-connect" at some point.

It's worth pointing out two things that may not readily come to mind when we're putting a copy of Rand McNally on top of the heap of things to save. The first is that we should consider also preserving navigational instruments. A drafting compass, ruler, protractor, star chart, magnetic compass, etc, are also reasonably cheap and should last indefinitely if stored right. The other thing to consider is the form of the data itself. A road atlas is a convenient tool, but if I remember correctly, most of them do not include latitude and longitude as data. One possibility to explore (which would drastically cut down on storage space) would be storing maps which are lists of "vectors." A vector is a measure of angle, which usually represents force in a direction, but could also represent distance and location, meaning we could say that Town X is 45 degrees south of an arbitrary point at a distance of 40 miles. I haven't investigated enough yet to see if these are available, however.

Maps will have to be maintained, copied, and will be more prone to error as time goes on. However, we need to remember that if we are managing to make things work at a ninety-percent level, then we're still ahead of where we would be without that form of guidance. We aim for perfect accuracy in the storage of our information for future generations, but accept that anything we are doing is better than nothing at all.

Well Done

A reader (whose name I will withhold to protect his privacy -- if you want to have this find attributed, please let me know) recently contacted me about a book that he had found among his things, called the Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes.  (find it here)  In short, this is a book from the 1870s which details a huge variety of chemical and industrial processes for all kinds of products from soap to electroplating.  In short, a snapshot of what pre-modern industrial technology was like.  (One caveat, of course, is to be sure to investigate the safety of any chemicals and processes before using them and to abide by all applicable laws)

Finding this kind of work is of great important to the purpose of the Leibowitz Society, for obvious reasons.  After the collapse, communities are not going to be able to pick up the phone and call the chemical supply house, or pharmacy or hardware store for the things they will need.  What new materials they have are going to have to be made by hand or possibly traded for, and it seems implausible to assume that there will always be the option to trade.
 
The primary intent of the Leibowitz Society has always been to store humanity's accumulated knowledge and use it to rebuild on the other side of what is increasingly seeming to be a certain collapse of the modern industrial world.  No one really knows what form rebuilding is going to take, nor if people will be any wiser or more moral once that rebuilding begins, or even if it would be possible to exceed or approximate what has been done in the last century and a half. 

At the same time, it's clear that once the dust has settled, people are still going to have a need to pick up the pieces and try to create a functional world, whatever form it takes.  A significant part of that is going to be works like this which allow people to have at least some idea what direction to take, even if there are many other gaps to be filled in.  Again, thanks to the reader who tipped me off to the existence of this historical work.

Science

The fifth knowledge area of the Leibowitz Society is Science.  The area of Science is the theoretical companion to Civil Engineering, covering everything from Biology to Meteorology to Physics and Genetics. 

Science has the potential to be a controversial subject area at some point.  Scientism, the idea that science can provide all answers to life's questions, or is the ultimate authority in all areas, is really no more welcome as a worldview than is dogmatic religious fundamentalism.  As Einstein said, "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."  I think, in essence, what Einstein was attempting to say is that we cannot take a wholly irrational approach to matters, but that we also cannot take a singular approach to matters that also involve consideration beyond simple, objective analysis.  Obviously, we would not choose to consult a priest, rabbi, guru, etc, when it comes to particle physics, as these people do not normally study this field to any level of expertise.  At the same time, why would we consult a scientist on matters of philosophy, ethics, etc, when they also do not study these fields on a professional basis?

This aside, no one can look at the accomplishments and contributions of science to the development of the modern world, and the progress of humanity, and in turn argue that we should not study and preserve scientific materials with the intent of letting our descendants build on the works of our ancestors.  As always, suggestions on how to modify or improve this list are welcome.

Arithmetic (up to Algebra)
Mathematics (Algebra to Calculus)
Statistics
Alternate Mathematics (linear math, binary trees, decision matrixes)
Meteorology
Astronomy
Time, Including Basic Estimation
Measures of Distance, Weight, etc.
Electrical Theory
Chemistry
Physics 
Genetics
Ecology
Biology 
Species Classification
Geology
Psychology and Personality Typing