@DW2 Some "educational" experiences are better not to experience for yourself. Would you rather starve to death trying to implement a communist utopian system, or read a book about how it totally failed and would be retarded to try again?

The only reason we were able to advance as a civilization is because people wrote things down so that others could build on that. Otherwise, you just have oral tradition, and we can see how far that brings your civilization (hint: no further than mud huts).