Better off : flipping the switch on technology / Eric Brende.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brende, Eric.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brende, Eric.

Technology--Social aspects.

Technology.

Technology--Psychological aspects.

Simplicity.

Farm life.

Physical Description:

233 pages : map ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : HarperCollins, [2004]

Summary:

What happens when a graduate of MIT, the bastion of technological advancement, and his bride move to a community so primitive in its technology that even Amish groups consider it antiquated? Eric Brende conceives a real-life experiment: to see if, in fact, all our cell phones, wide-screen TVs, and SUVs have made life easier and better -- or whether life would be preferable without them. By turns, the query narrows down to a single question: What is the least we need to achieve the most? With this in mind, the Brendes ditch their car, electric stove, refrigerator, running water, and everything else motorized or "hooked to the grid" and begin an eighteen-month trial run -- one that dramatically changes the way they live, and proves entertaining and surprising to readers. Better OFF is a smart, often comedic, and always riveting book that also mingles scientific analysis with the human story, demonstrating how a world free of technological excess can shrink stress -- and waistlines -- and expand happiness, health, and leisure. Our notion that technophobes are backward gets turned on its head as the Brendes realize that the crucial technological decisions of their adopted Minimite community are made more soberly and deliberately than in the surrounding culture, and the result is greater -- not lesser -- mastery over the conditions of human existence.

Contents:

Cast of Neighbors xiii

Prologue: Taking Orders 1

Section I Planting 3

1 Seeds of Discontent 5

2 Paring Back 16

3 Lightening Up 30

4 Artfully Answering Nature 39

5 The Ram 46

6 The Missing Refrigerator 60

7 The Sounds of Silence 65

Section II Growing 71

8 Quickening 73

9 A Church Meeting 79

10 A Barn Raising 90

11 The Dating Game 103

12 Meet the Neighbors 108

13 Secrets and Politics 132

14 Heatstroke 138

15 Weighing the Work 153

Section III Harvesting 169

16 As the Pumpkins Turn 171

17 After the Fall: Even Farmers Get the Blues 179

18 Birth 188

19 Husbandry 196

20 Pulling in the Reins 202

21 Closing Time 215

22 Outside, and the Box 219

Epilogue: Recipe for a Leisurely, Laborsaving Life 227.

ISBN:

0060570040

OCLC:

53937985