It could make for a good reality/docu tv show; drop 50 engineers and scientists on a large desert island with many resources, and task them to rebuild civilization. It would be interesting to see how long it will take to get the required work just for food acquisition low enough so that one could engage in the civilization building. It would also be interesting to see whether there are big shortcuts, things that don't have to be redone.
Oh another thought: In our modern civilization, we require a lot of materials that cannot be found in the wild. In order to get them, we need to do complex mining - but to do that, we need simpler mining -- to do that, we first need some tools -- do make those, we need more basic tools. I kind of wonder what the shortest chain/tree of prerequisite tools and materials is from the stone age, to, say, a modern cpu (to make it easier, let's assume availability of resources is not an issue).
(I feel these thought experiements were kinda spurred by the finale of Battlestar Galactica, at least in my circle of friends.)
> I kind of wonder what the shortest chain/tree of prerequisite tools and materials is from the stone age, to, say, a modern cpu
I suspect the chain isn't as long as you think, and you probably spend most of your time on the last steps.
The HUGE win is steel. You can almost go from stone age to well into the Industrial Revolution with almost no intermediate steps based on knowledge alone (blast furnaces date to 1st century AD--the limitation on steel was lack of chemistry knowledge rather than engineering).
After that you start needing interlocking industrial infrastructure.
I, unlike, the sibling comment, believe that would be a great show, given the skillful background storytelling, and - possibly - scripted spectacular blowup here and there, carefully controlled with all safety measures taken of course.
My interested was spurred by a Russian book for children "Where do things come from" and Jule Verne's "Mysterious Island", but now I am tempted to watch Battlestar Galactica!
It would be a horrible reality TV show. Primitive construction techniques are very slow, especially if you also need to worry about acquiring food through primitive means, and each technique takes a lifetime to master. We and our children would all be dead by the time they rebuild the steam engine. But the series would not run that long because it would be boring.
The finale of Battlestar Galactica was totally the Golgafrincham “B” Ark from Douglas Adams. It turns out that “And they have a plan” was a lie, and the series just went downhill after season 2.
Oh another thought: In our modern civilization, we require a lot of materials that cannot be found in the wild. In order to get them, we need to do complex mining - but to do that, we need simpler mining -- to do that, we first need some tools -- do make those, we need more basic tools. I kind of wonder what the shortest chain/tree of prerequisite tools and materials is from the stone age, to, say, a modern cpu (to make it easier, let's assume availability of resources is not an issue).
(I feel these thought experiements were kinda spurred by the finale of Battlestar Galactica, at least in my circle of friends.)