How to Invent Everything

A fun book that uses the premise of a time traveller stranded in the past and having to make the best of things by starting off humanity on the path of civilization. The means of doing this is by bypassing the trial and errors that humanity went through and going straight to the solutions needed to set up a working modern civilization.

The book starts off with tips for the stranded time traveller to find out where and when he might be. Assuming the traveller is lucky and ends up in a certain time period where modern man was around, but civilization hasn't been established yet, the book goes on with the basis of setting up a civilization, namely getting a spoken and written language, a 'rational' system of numbers and establishing the scientific method.

Farming is then introduced so that people's basis calorie needs are satisfied and can devote energy to other matters. Units of measurements (length, weights, etc.) are added, followed by more details on how to farm more productively (selective breeding and crop rotation). A list of plants and animals that are useful are also given.

Once people can be properly fed, industry is then added. Basic farming technology is added (the plough and harness), followed by ways to preserve food. Mining machinery is added, leading to more machines and the beginnings of the industrial age, all the way to electrical machines.

Other basic items of civilization are introduced like clocks, thermometers, sewing, birth control, housing materials (cement and concrete), paper and transport (bicycles, boats, aeroplanes) are added. The basics of medicine and first aid are added, and the book ends of 'luxuries' like music and the basics of computers.

With that, the stranded time traveller might be able to 'kick-start' humanity on the path of civilization and end up where he or she started, with the abilities to build a time machine to go back in time, again.

While this book was really informative and entertaining, and I'll definitely be using it for worldbuilding reference, there are a few things that kept me from giving it five stars:
* The jokes got a little repetitive. But if you spread out the reading over a few months this is fine.
* There is precious little social science, which I thought was a pretty glaring omission considering North's training in linguistics. Where is the advice about how to build coherent, healthy societies and families? How to prevent income disparities and provide universal education? We're trying to build a civilization here!
* Some of the science he includes is out of date, or reflects commonly held assumptions instead of the latest research. For example, he suggests that farming is essential to prevent famine and reduce the amount of time you have to spend gathering food, but really a better way to prevent famine is practice birth control, and farming is extremely labor intensive compared to gathering berries and shellfish. Also, he argues that humans didn't invent language (language!) until about 50,000 years ago, which is extremely speculative at best. I won't go into it all here, but a linguist really should know better.