Ryan North

How to Invent Everything Ryan North

CAUTION: You have now arrived in the past. Watch out for dinosaurs. With this trusty guide, you can create a world in which humanity matures quickly and efficiently, instead of spending 200,000 years stumbling around in the dark without language, not knowing that tying a rock to a string would unlock navigating the entire world, and thinking disease was caused by weird smells. It contains all the science, engineering, mathematics, art, music, writing, culture, facts, and figures that are required for one human - without any specialized training - to build a civilization from the ground up. It will allow you to create a world like the one you left, but better. It is nothing less than a complete cheat sheet for civilization. Both fascinating and hilarious, How To Invent Everything provides an enthralling journey through the history of human ingenuity and invention. You'll discover the five most important technologies humans have invented (Spoken Language, Written Language, Numbers, the Scientific Method and the Calorie Surplus), and learn how quickly we can recreate those skills and knowledge with a few basic facts and tools. It's a perfect read for fans of Randall Munroe's What If? and Thing Explainer, zombie apocalypse survivors, web comic lovers and wannabe time travellers everywhere.