Manual for Civilization
Manual for Civilization
[Brian Eno is talking to an unseen audience.] Brian Eno: Hi. I'm music's Brian Eno, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation.
[Panel 2 shows he is standing on a stage.] Brian Eno: As part of our mission to promote long-term thinking, we've asked experts to help us assemble a collection of books from which civilization can be rebuilt if it ever collapses.
[Panel 3 shows he is holding a manuscript with a long list of book titles.] Brian Eno: Today we're sharing the results — the first ever Manual for Civilization .
[Panel 4 shows him reading from the manuscript.] Brian Eno: *Ahem* Animorphs #1: The Invasion Animorphs #2: The Visitor Animorphs #3: The Encounter Unseen Audience member: ...are they all Animorphs Books? Brian Eno: No! There's also Megamorphs and The Andalite Chronicles .

Brian Eno is a musician and a co-founder of the Long Now Foundation . He is explaining to an audience that one of the missions of the Long Now is a Manual for Civilization - a collection of reference materials that can help rebuild society in case it  collapses. But in Randall's version, the experts have made a list composed of many books from the Animorphs series.
Animorphs is a series of books written by K.A. Applegate . It follows a group of five children (later, an alien joins as the sixth member), that try to stop the parasitic aliens, the Yeerks, by transforming into animals. A Yeerk that enters a human has complete control over their host, and can read their memories. Because the Yeerks can imitate their host almost perfectly, humanity is slowly being taken over without knowing it, and for this reason the children cannot contact the authorities and are on their own in the battle against the Yeerks.
When asked if all the books on the experts' list are from the Animorph series, Eno misses the point of the question by saying No! , only to mention the Megamorphs books and The Andalite Chronicles , both of which are side stories to the Animorph universe.
There are other books like these which aren't mentioned here — but it is clear from the last two panels that it is a quite long list — and it seems to be written in two columns, so maybe all 54 Animorphs books and all ten side stories could be included on the list.
In suggesting that a series of children's novels make up the blueprint for rebuilding civilization, Randall is spoofing the idea of such libraries (since such books would be largely useless in terms of providing the detailed instructions that would be necessary). However, due to the surprisingly deep and introspective nature of Animorphs books, which several generations have grown up on, it may also entirely be possible that Randall is expressing his fondness for the series by suggesting that reading the books would be sufficient for creating the moral foundations of a functional civilization.
The title text makes it completely ludicrous by saying an entire wing of the library will be devoted to the book (#26) where two main characters who have been attracted to each other since the beginning of the series finally kiss. While this is a momentous event for fans of the book series, the information is of no consequence for the rebuilding of civilization [ citation needed ] .
This comic may also be inspired by Isaac Asimov 's Foundation series , where Hari Seldon claimed that the Galactic Empire is going to collapse in three hundred years, there is no way to stop it but his group of scientists are writing Encyclopedia Galactica to help people rebuild civilization.
[Brian Eno is talking to an unseen audience.] Brian Eno: Hi. I'm music's Brian Eno, co-founder of the Long Now Foundation.
[Panel 2 shows he is standing on a stage.] Brian Eno: As part of our mission to promote long-term thinking, we've asked experts to help us assemble a collection of books from which civilization can be rebuilt if it ever collapses.
[Panel 3 shows he is holding a manuscript with a long list of book titles.] Brian Eno: Today we're sharing the results — the first ever Manual for Civilization .
[Panel 4 shows him reading from the manuscript.] Brian Eno: *Ahem* Animorphs #1: The Invasion Animorphs #2: The Visitor Animorphs #3: The Encounter Unseen Audience member: ...are they all Animorphs Books? Brian Eno: No! There's also Megamorphs and The Andalite Chronicles .
