The ‘Tankers’ are a collective of professionals
dedicated to a unified philosophy of
knowledge collection and collation. It is the beliefs of the Tankers
(colloquial shorthand for their formal name ‘Think Tank for the New World’)
that humanity is defined and sustained by the knowledge that they have gathered
and attained. As such it is the duty of the Tankers to collect and interpret
the pre-collapse knowledge so that it is not lost to the rigors of time.
Tankers then use this collected knowledge to help and improve the lives of
others, whether it be through medicine, food preparation or the application of
sciences, in order to bring about the dawn of a new golden age for mankind.
The most stalwart of the Tankers are those who believe that all pre-collapse
knowledge is irreplaceable, and that only through the full and complete
understanding of this knowledge can it be used to rebuild society. They do not
condone the application of incomplete knowledge and abhor those who seek to
fill the gaps themselves, they believe the past will define the future.
A preservative tanker might be a surgeon who refuses to try treatments he has
not read about, and might believe that the correct treatment for a fever is the
application of leeches, due to his reading being limited to texts about
pre-collapse alternative medicines. A preservative Tanker still uses their
knowledge to help develop mankind, but they are cautious and apply it only as
it is understood.
Then there are the progressives of the Tankers, who believe that the knowledge
of the past serves only as a foundation or stepping stone towards the knowledge
of the future. They think that mankind will come together and recover best by
creating new things, be it art, poetry
or contemplative works. To them mankind is its ability to look forward and think of new ideas.
A progressive tanker might believe the best way they can serve society is to
create great works of art, they might perform dramatic readings of unfinished
works of a pre-collapse poets where they encourage listeners to join in by
filling the gaps. A progressive takes risks with their knowledge, striding
forward to the future of mankind with confidence.