Hi, Straggler.
Straggler writes:
Have we achieved nothing as a species? Nothing worth saving and passing on to future generations?
I'm only 27: I still haven't matured enough to learn when to take things seriously. That, and I have ADD, so reading long books is too hard for me.
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Straggler writes:
I would have thought the problem would be the tiny limit of 10 books. Instead it appears that those who have replied consider even that too much to bother with.
I basically agree with what Dr Adequate said: there would be sentimental and cultural value in saving certain pieces of cultural literature (novels, plays, etc.), but this surely has to take a back seat to scientific and academic literature, because someone from the colony can write new works of cultural literature that the colonists can become sentimental about.
So, whatever cultural contributions a work of fiction might offer can be completely compensated for by somebody else writing another work of fiction. This can feasibly happen within months of the colony’s foundation.
Not so for science: if our society was without knowledge of evolution, physics, mathematics, etc., it would take multiple generations, and millions of publications, to bring us back to our current state of knowledge and applicability of that knowledge. Even having well-trained professionals in these fields won’t be good enough, because without, e.g., documented evidence and data about the various scientific theories and fields of study, you would be requiring the colony to accept these theories, not because of the evidence for them, but solely on the authority of those few professionals.
Like Dr Adequate, I say that all 10 books must be of a scientific, technological or academic nature, rather than of a cultural or sentimental nature, because science is less easily replaced than culture.
-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)
Darwin loves you.
™ Version 4.2
