Technological Review
The Technological Review is a series of guidebooks created by the Gudersnipe Foundation, and carried by most Foundation starships. It was presumably created in the event of a Code-Six Scenario, but the Foundation has also admitted that is is effectively a manual for how to re-build civilization, and is one of the many efforts they have undertaken to prevent another Mage Wars, or the events of the Fall of Roads.
Size and Construction
The entire review contains forty-eight volumes. They are printed on a kind of thick vinyl that will not hold a flame and is very long-lasting. Further, the words and images are imprinted into the page, so that even if the ink fades, some amterial could still be viewed. The Foundation estimates that even with only modest efforts to keep the volumes out of direct sunlight and dry, the collection could easily last indefinitely in nearly any environment.
The forty-eight volume collection is usually housed in a robust sealed container, clearly marked, and kept with a ship's evacuation supply. Copies are also stored at every Foundation base and house in libraries all over the verse. The Foundation has also admitted to the existence of a handful of "repositories", where the complete text is reproduced on clay tablets, along with vast stores of other information.
Contents
The review begins with Volume I, Chapter I: How to Smelt Iron. The same chapter also covers a variety of fire-starting techniques, and tips on building rudimentary stone tools. The review ends with volumes forty-two through forty-eight, which, building on information in the previous volumes, contain everything needed to construct FTL-capable spacecraft.
Usage
The Foundation believes that, if a population beginning with around thirty thousand people were ever marooned on a planet with nothing else besides the clothes on their back and a copy of the review, they could, with good organization and a concerted effort, construct FTL-capable ships in the space of just three generations. The entire civilization would have to be committed to this goal.
The Foundation also believes (and has proven) that a group of only five hundred marooned individuals, could construct a sub-space transmitter in just ten years; again using no pre-provided tools and only the information included in the review. The time to build a simple radio transmitter is only five years.
See also: Lutra Colony.
