Rohit Farmer, Ph.D.

I started this thread on Reddit. I am wondering whether people here are interested in it or would like to collaborate?

#outdoors #openSource #survival #camping #skills #survivalskills #bushcraft #wilderness #selfreliance #notech #nature

Public domain survival books

https://www.reddit.com/r/Survival/comments/1rdpyqh/public_domain_survival_books/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Feb 25 at 4:08pmWeb
Show threadJulesFeb 25

@rohitfarmer

This is cool! Are you planning to make a compilation or database?

Show threadRohit Farmer, Ph.D.Feb 25
@julianmaiz I am thinking of compiling books on various topics, either entirely human-written or with AI assistance and edited by a human, and exporting them as PDFs. That people can legally download and print. We can create a static website to distribute those books, but the main premise is that it is a crowd-contributed project, free to download and print. All the free books I find on outdoor topics are 50 to 100 years old, and the scanned copies aren't print-friendly.
Show threadJulesFeb 25

@rohitfarmer

That's really interesting.

I will say though that I'm personally a bit skeptical when it comes to material written using AI, even if was done in-part.

I'm curious what your plan is to discern which books will be deemed trustworthy enough to include in the compilation?

Show threadRohit Farmer, Ph.D.Feb 25

@julianmaiz AI skepticism is okay, but asking people to write everything themselves is also challenging. My idea is that some of us can use AI to write, and others who have hands-on experience can validate.

Right now, I do not have a list of what to include. But I want it to be a mix of survival, outdoor, cooking, and other essential life skills. Multiple separate books that are easy to digest and print.

Show threadJulesFeb 25

@rohitfarmer

That's fair. From what I read, this seems like you plan to make this a community-driven project so I hope that many experts could chime in on the presented information.

As a PhD holder, I'm guessing it won't be hard for you to find some?

Show threadRohit Farmer, Ph.D.Feb 25

@julianmaiz trust me, it's hard to find people to work on a community-driven project. And I am a computational biologist who works at a computer for 40 hours a week. Not many people around me are interested in writing books about essential life skills. I would need help from the community at large.

Right now, I am trying to figure out if it's even worth giving it a try. I can set up the infrastructure and fill in some pages, but then I will need domain experts to validate it.

Show threadJulesFeb 25

@rohitfarmer

Oof, I see. Well I don't really have much expertise on the topic but I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

I hope you don't mind if I've given you a follow. For what it's worth, I'm very interested in projects like these.

Show threadRohit Farmer, Ph.D.Feb 25

@julianmaiz sure, I have followed you back as well. If I start this project, Mastodon would probably be the first place where I announce it.

Thanks for chatting, though. Discussing helps in clearing up ideas.