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Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

projectnomad.us

151–160 of 236 posts

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#151

I come from a time when internet connectivity was not permanent. It was only available a few times per day when you connected via the phone line. My first ISP gave me an allowance of 20 hours of internet per month. You would dial-up, check the news, check your email, read a page or two, download what you had to download, and then disconnect. The internet was very slow by today's standards, and the connection would ge…

I recently re read Walkaway and it made me yearn for an offline-first internet, where every computer is a node, and nodes are constantly refreshing each other's cache when they get the chance (the network works), but otherwise are basically mirroring much of the internet.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

joke’s on the survivors who have to go find sunlight in nuclear winter

I suppose you could have a gasoline powered battery and then charge electronics with that, no?

Stationary exercise bike, large hobby BLDC motor (or random PMAC motor from some AC appliance) plus some diodes (fullbridgerectifier meme goes here) to rectify the generated voltage. :)

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#153
post #143

i am looking for something like this but for a cheap used phones i can give to kids without internet that has all the books, offline maps, wikipedia and some basic llm. They would have complete environment to explore depending on their curiosity.Is there something like this? otherwise i am thinking of creating my own collection and opensourcing it.

Kiwix, maybe Kolibri? If up for tinkering, maybe something like Internet in a Box (can be done through Tmux+Proot-distro)

https://kiwix.org/en/

https://learningequality.org/kolibri/

https://internet-in-a-box.org/

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#154
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know of any preppers who buy guns and rations but don't have a plan for water? OK steelmanning you, certainly a lot of them are way more interested in gun collecting and making beef jerky than other aspects.

I don’t think we have a term for people who quietly keep a well stocked pantry, have a water setup, garden, have hobbies like canning, etc. That’s just being a bit rustic/prudent I guess. So then, the “prepper” derogatory label is only applied to the people who do it in the action movie/silly way. But, the question of how prevalent they are is a good one…

"staff engineer"

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#156
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And we did it all without a manual the first time, so it stands to reason we (or more accurately, our descendants) could figure it out.

We did it in a pristine world the first time. The next time we do it in a world stripped of natural resources and easy energy with a collapsing biosphere soaked in poison and radioactive waste. Not impossible but I doubt we get another Industrial Revolution.

>We did it in a pristine world the first time. The next time we do it in a world stripped of natural resources and easy energy with a collapsing biosphere soaked in poison and radioactive waste.

Well, we did it in an ice age the first time.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#157
post #139
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kind of prepping in "prepper" culture though is bullshit. People living and having actual experience in such dangerous places don't prep like that.

I have lived in places like that, and absolutely prep like that when the environment calls for it. I'd expect a non zero proportion of the HN readership has as well. See: Burning Man, the fanciest refugee camp on Earth, where you need to schedule, plan, haul in, and haul back out again everything you need to survive. (I've also spent time living in legit BFE where the closest store for something can be more than an h…

If you think the Burning Man is in any way representative to what people do in places like that (think war torn African states, the Middle East, etc) then...

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#158
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kind of prepping in "prepper" culture though is bullshit. People living and having actual experience in such dangerous places don't prep like that.

But I bet they would've loved the opportunity to do so before it all went sideways.

I mean they practically know and prepare in different ways, because the popular idea of prepping is bullshit.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#159
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did it in a pristine world the first time. The next time we do it in a world stripped of natural resources and easy energy with a collapsing biosphere soaked in poison and radioactive waste. Not impossible but I doubt we get another Industrial Revolution.

> We did it in a pristine world the first time. The next time we do it in a world stripped of natural resources and easy energy with a collapsing biosphere soaked in poison and radioactive waste. Well, we did it in an ice age the first time.

And here we are, still in the exact same Ice Age .. albeit only barely as the ice covered poles are on the way out should trends continue.

Re: Project Nomad – Knowledge That Never Goes Offline

#160

Normally I cringe at doomsday preppers but given how many dictators out there love the idea to cut their country off Internet whenever anything starts going not in their favor, I imagine a lot of people may find this useful. I wouldn’t want to lose access to knowledge how to fix a sink or which medication is better, just because the local kingface currently feels that free exchange of opinions about him threatens his…

Stuff like this is why I keep a small library at my house. Full encyclopedia set, Merck Manual, home repair book, etc. May never use them, but I like having them. Facebook ads even successfully targeted me for that “how to rebuild all of civilization” book. :)

I have one of my grandpa's "do everything" books from the 50s in my shelf just for this.

It has everything from building houses to boats to making moonshine and medicine in it. Amazing stuff.

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