[seu]

Time and again, techno-utopians tend to forget that, for most of humanity's existence, knowledge was passed on orally and was not "scientific", but it allowed us to survive and flourish. It is not solar concentrators what will allow us to survive, but knowledge of the earth, soil and awareness of the place that we occupy on the web of life. And that knowledge cannot always be registered, but has to be learned from practice. You don't need a guide to know how to grow potatoes, you need to learn it and teach it to the next generations. Unfortunately, that's not as fancy as talking about solar energy or mathematics, or fantasizing about the great library at the end of the universe.

[Aachen]

How would info on how to grow potatoes not be something you can write down? And knowledge of a place is called a map?

To me, your comment sounds more like an argument for picking books with different topics rather than not using books but relying on oral retelling to "allow us to survive and flourish". And I agree this potato farming type of info sounds more broadly useful than the books I saw shared above about metal alloys and other automotive-related tech.

Then again, the title of the post is bouncing back, which would go beyond just farming and survival knowledge. I suppose we need both and your survival in the wild info is fundamental to allow their tech info to be useful.