#221 - Prof Lewis Dartnell - How To Rebuild Human Society After An Apocalypse

Lewis Dartnell is an astro-biologist, Professor of Science Communication at the University of Westminster and the author of The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch. His research is on whether microbial life could survive the radiation on Mars. His books are about something closer to home: how little any of us understand about the world we depend on. Lewis and I run the thought experiment properly. If you woke up tomorrow and civilisation had gone, what kills you first, where do you go, how long does a supermarket actually keep you alive and how many people do you need before you can rebuild anything at all? The answer to one of those is 55 years and it is not the one you expect. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - The Big Red Reset Button 00:04:26 - Get Out Of The Cities 00:08:14 - A Supermarket Keeps You Alive 55 Years 00:09:48 - You Need 10,000 People 00:13:21 - We Outsourced All The Handiwork 00:17:45 - You Have To Preserve Everything 00:19:19 - Every Technology Is A Weapon 00:23:14 - The One Thing He Would Take 00:25:41 - Mechanical AI 00:28:35 - Resilient And Fragile At The Same Time 00:32:38 - We Invent Because We Are Lazy 00:34:05 - The Gasifier Stove 00:37:57 - The Cars That Ran On Wood 00:42:03 - Making Glass From A Bag Of Sand 00:51:38 - He Made His Own Photograph 00:55:43 - Printing A Page From Scratch 00:59:47 - The Kindle Apocalypse Plan 01:05:39 - Could We Actually Live On Mars? 01:11:48 - The Radiation Problem 01:19:02 - The Next Book - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CONTACT PETE › Website – http://petermccormack.com › Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact › Email – [email protected] › Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/ › X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/ CONNECT WITH LEWIS DARTNELL › Website – https://lewisdartnell.com/ › The Knowledge – https://the-knowledge.org/ › X/Twitter – https://x.com/Lewis_Dartnell SPONSORS › IREN – https://www.iren.com/ › Quo – https://quo.com/pete › Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE › Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K › Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu › Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM › YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM › Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePM FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR › https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/ › https://x.com/curttayloruk/ EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK › https://x.com/ConorM04 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.