# Which Would You Choose to Have Restored to the World? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 31, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181 "2017-08-31T17:27:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/1 "2017-08-31T17:27:39Z")
A Genie appears before you, and gives you a choice of one of two miracles. The Genie will restore fully all the writings that were lost [in the destruction of the Library of Alexandria.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Library_of_Alexandria) Or the Genie will restore all the silent movies made that were lost. Estimates range that about 80% of silent movies are gone. Which do you choose? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/2 "2017-08-31T17:31:14Z")
Alexandria. Easy. I can’t imagine those silent movies are of any historical significance. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/3 "2017-08-31T17:32:34Z")
The library by far. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Shine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr_shine/32/464_2.png) [@Mr\_Shine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Shine)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/4 "2017-08-31T17:33:58Z")
Can I have a cheese sandwich instead? (No brown sauce, wouldn’t want to get extravagant.) ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/5 "2017-08-31T17:36:22Z")
Definitely the library. Hell, I’d take the library even if the tradeoff was 1%, randomly selected, of the library vs all silent movies. ---
**Author:** ![Tzigone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/6 "2017-08-31T17:38:45Z")
Depends very much on how much of the content of the Library of Alexandria was content we don’t now have from elsewhere. I’ve heard conflicting claims on this. The destruction is so heavily mythologized in popular culture. If we have 70% of the content from elsewhere I would probably restore the silent films. While I’m sure a lot of them are not that good (the same can be said for today’s films), I think they’d at least have niche of silent film fans that would be very interested and gain entertainment out of them. We’re unlikely to get any actual scientific advances out of the Library, and so the content becomes valuable for understanding the past. And silent movies can help people with that, too, in a few centuries. Albeit we have far more recorded material (books, etc.) of the early 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/7 "2017-08-31T17:38:49Z")
Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! (Seriously, obviously, the library. Not close. Not even worthy of discussion.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/8 "2017-08-31T17:45:13Z")
Library. How is this even a question? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/9 "2017-08-31T17:48:22Z")
The library, hands down. Someone may yet find a cache of lost silent movies somewhere (it seems to happen with individual movies from time to time) but what’s gone from the library is gone. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/10 "2017-08-31T18:22:19Z")
The silent movies probably have a lot more content, even just by count of titles, without even getting into the question of information content of a movie vs. text on paper. But most of the good movies from that era have been preserved, or at least remembered, and records still exist even of the ones that aren’t particularly remembered. The Library, though, is full of unknown unknowns: We don’t even know what it is we’d learn from it. That’s exciting. Of course, most likely, we wouldn’t get anything from it, because there’s no technology that’s known to two other civilizations that we lack, and then it’d promptly go obsolete again because we already have Education. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/11 "2017-08-31T18:31:15Z")
Screw technology. I want all of Homer back! Just think of the lost plays, poems, essays and random scribblings that went missing. The cultural treasure is what I want, not the noodlings of a bunch of film students. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/12 "2017-08-31T18:40:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Of course, most likely, we wouldn’t get anything from it, because there’s no technology that’s known to two other civilizations that we lack, and then it’d promptly go obsolete again because we already have Education. We’d get tons from it – history, literature and myth, and language. There are many lost languages, or texts we have that are so far undeciphered, and this would probably fill in many of these gaps. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/13 "2017-08-31T18:45:45Z")
The library, not even close. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/14 "2017-08-31T18:54:39Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Library. How is this even a question? This. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/15 "2017-08-31T18:57:35Z")
Alexandria, but everything. No “just the books that were destroyed the last time it got razed”, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/16 "2017-08-31T19:48:38Z")
The library, no question. We know a lot more about the state of human knowledge, characters, and literature during the silent movie era than we do about ancient history. The linguistic knowledge alone would be worth it. I love old movies as much as the next guy, but come on. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/17 "2017-08-31T21:05:55Z")
Alexandria. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/18 "2017-08-31T21:37:41Z")
The Library, no question. Now, if instead of “all the silent movies” it was “all the lost episodes of Doctor Who”…we might have a discussion… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/19 "2017-08-31T21:42:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The silent movies probably have a lot more content, even just by count of titles, without even getting into the question of information content of a movie vs. text on paper. > > But most of the good movies from that era have been preserved, or at least remembered, and records still exist even of the ones that aren’t particularly remembered. The Library, though, is full of unknown unknowns: We don’t even know what it is we’d learn from it. That’s exciting. > > Of course, most likely, we wouldn’t get anything from it, because there’s no technology that’s known to two other civilizations that we lack, and then it’d promptly go obsolete again because we already have Education. a CIV player I see … ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181/20 "2017-08-31T21:45:41Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Library. How is this even a question? Well, this was my question to myself. And I knew that as a history lover, my answer should of course be the Library at Alexandria. But I also felt that I would enjoy seeing the old movies more than reading the no doubt dense, stodgy, and unentertaining reams of old scroll scribblings, discovery rich and enlightening of old forgotten societies though they would be. Imagine seeing the whole of Emil Jannings in _The Way of All Flesh_, or Theda Bara as Cleopatra or Lon Chaney in _London After Midnight_? Or some Our Gang Comedies or Marx Brothers efforts that are gone. I guess I would still choose the Library because that seems like the right thing to do, but I wouldn’t really like doing it. Now, maybe if the Genie would also throw in the Dumont TV Network Library and the missing _Doctor Who_ episodes, I might just choose the silent movies option. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-would-you-choose-to-have-restored-to-the-world/795181.md?page=2)