Rebirth: When Everyone Forgot

Set in the Near Future, (from the POV of the 1930ies) a Scientist, so disgusted by what he self-righteously reguards as the decedance of modern civilization, instantaneously transforms the world by means of a Ray which obliterates all memory, all acquired knowledge, including how to talk. Hoping that in this tabula-rasa setting men, starting from instinct, will be able to create a just society; but only the smartest and toughest re-educate themselves in technology. The rest must die.