'Born to Run' made Chris McDougall a star, but a farm near the Amish made this Delco boy happy ...

Barefoot TJ

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Mar 5, 2010
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I often think about how tech-world shackles have hijacked our humanity.

I'm reminded of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with that line. In that book the author points out an apparent contradiction: people who loudly proclaim to be anti-technology are often the most reliant on it while people who loudly praise technology are often the most able to survive without it.

In particular he used the example of his friends on their fancy, new BMW motorcycle from the Twin Cities in MN. They seemed to always complain about technology especially when something went wrong with their fancy, new BMW motorcycle. The usual sentiment was "It's a fancy, new BMW motorcycle. It shouldn't have problems!" Because of this attitude they didn't bother to learn how to maintain their bike so the author was always the one fixing it. They committed to this cross-country ride and in doing so put themselves completely at the mercy of technology in many ways.

Then they stop somewhere in the middle of ND and see these farmers driving some big, new combine or tractor through town, their faces just beaming with pride. These were the examples of people who really prized and valued technology. But at the time the book was written most farmers were also capable of getting by without that kind of thing. It just made their lives and work easier. So there's the apparent contradiction: they love technology but could get by just fine without it.

I guess I try to live like the farmers in that example. I'm a software developer, drive a Tesla but run barefoot. I try to limit my social media to mostly anonymous usernames not so much out of privacy concerns but because I've seen how toxic places like Facebook can get with your older neighbors first discovering the Internet and spilling out their deepest, darkest thoughts on-line for all the world to see. People post stuff on FB they'd *never* say to your face and they seem oblivious to how damaging that kind of behavior can be.

So I guess the contradiction comes down to how in the modern world you're more able to be "free" of technology if you know more about technology. You're better able to recognize how technology can add to your life without falling into the traps of allowing technology to take hold of your life.
 
I'm reminded of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance with that line. In that book the author points out an apparent contradiction: people who loudly proclaim to be anti-technology are often the most reliant on it while people who loudly praise technology are often the most able to survive without it.

I feel the same, trevize. I grew up very rural, where much of my family were farmers. Not very big commercial farms, just 2 person self sufficient farms using very old equipment (as a kid in the 80s and 90's I remember them using the old International Harvester H and M and the old John Deer B plus a few newer tractors. When I was a kid some of my favorite memories were simply playing in the woods, creek stomping, fishing and looking for crayfish in the creek on the farm, getting the cows (or often the one territorial bull) to chase us across the field as we jumped into an old hay wagon for cover. Good thing my grandparents never found out about that last one lol. But I was a tech geek, enamored with hi-tech stuff as a kid and inspired by Star Trek and things like that, went to college for electronics engineering... Never worked for NASA like I hoped to lol, but after a couple decades working in tech, I am very eager to get back to that amish-like lifestyle. I plan on retiring early and doing just that, in an off-grid remote home. For fun I don't need tech or lots of money, my favorite things are hiking in the mountains, cycling country roads, and paddling the numerous waterways around my stompin' grounds. I haven't started on that yet, still looking for property and can't move for a while. So in the meantime I enjoy honing some of my homesteading skills by heating almost exclusively from wood (I cut it all myself and hand split), gardening, hunting deer, canning food, handcrafting and diy'ing all sorts of stuff around the house, etc. Of course I realize the benefit and want some technology, like solar panels and batteries, indoor plumbing, a computer to look up information etc, but I don't need all wifi-enabled appliances, alexa or a smart-tv in every room, etc. I guess you could say I appreciate technology where it truly helps, but despise where it has infiltrated our normal lives so much where it is unnecessary steals from our skills or makes us lazy, or something just for companies to profit from it.