Talk:1380: Manual for Civilization

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 16:36, 12 June 2014 by 108.162.241.114 (talk)
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There's probably some connection between Eno and animorphs/post-apocalyptic earth, but because I don't know him, I only added info on the animorphs Shadowmanwkp (talk) 08:40, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Brian Eno is associated with Long Now foundation as a board member: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Now_Foundation


108.162.222.45 08:50, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

The joke at the end of the comic about the list being 'all' animorph books is not that not all animorph books are included in the list but that the list contains the megamorph and the andalite books in addition to all the animorph books. 141.101.92.231 09:03, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

I wonder why only Megamorphs and Andalite Chronicles were mentioned. Does Eno not like the others? 12:40, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Am I the only one who saw "Manual for Civilization" and thought: "I am Gandhi of the Indians. Our words are backed with NUCLEAR weapons. We have decided to rid the world of your pathetic civilization. Goodbye." -? Ah, that takes me back. Sid Meier, you owe me many hours. Fluppeteer (talk) 13:15, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Great comment - yes he owes me a lot of hours too! I had not seen it but it is very obvious - although probably not intended ;) Kynde (talk) 15:38, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

I disagree with the Asimov Foundation pun - I do not think Randall refeers to that at all. It was put at the top before the explain of the Amorph books. As it is a side issue I moved it down to the bottom of the explain where it might belong. But I think it should be removed! But I will leave that for others to decide! Kynde (talk) 15:38, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

The first thing I thought of when seeing "Long Now Foundation" and the reference to a person saying books are needed to help rebuild society was Asimov's Foundation series. So I think it should remain in the explanation. It my not be a pun, but I think significant reference to it is possible, and maybe likely. --Dangerkeith3000 (talk) 17:34, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
For what it's worth, the Long Now Foundation really is building a Manual for Civilization: http://blog.longnow.org/02010/04/06/manual-for-civilization/ --199.27.128.113 18:55, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
Thank you for linking to this! I came to this explainxkcd page because I wanted to know the answer to that very question. I think this link should be included in the article. 199.27.130.210 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
For the record, I had the idea for a "Post-apocalyptic Survival Guide" in 2008. I believe 3 text-book sized volumes could contain enough information on wilderness knowledge, engineering, science, medicine, and psychology for an individual or small community to exist quite happily. I considered making it a wiki, but that defeats the purpose, since nobody's going to have internet after an apocalypse. If you're actually trying to rebuild society to its present advancement, the hard part won't be finding the information, it will be finding people more interested in rebuilding than in their own survival. The Postman comes to mind...--108.162.215.55 20:58, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

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"If, in some cataclysm, all of scientific knowledge were to be destroyed, and only one sentence passed on to the next generation of creatures, what statement would contain the most information in the fewest words? I believe it is the atomic hypothesis that all things are made of atoms — little particles that move around in perpetual motion, attracting each other when they are a little distance apart, but repelling upon being squeezed into one another. In that one sentence, you will see, there is an enormous amount of information about the world, if just a little imagination and thinking are applied." - Richard P. Feynman (quote mentioned in Daniel Bor's "The Ravenous Brain", and sourced from: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/11/richard-feynman-lectures-on-physics/) 108.162.208.169 17:40, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Don't have time to create an account today, or I would do so to correct a typo: Asimov's character's first name was "Hari", not "Harry" (Seldon). Sorry if this seems like nitpicking... 108.162.241.114 16:36, 12 June 2014 (UTC)