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> It is common for Amish areas to avoid dependence on the outside world, and thus the communities that do use electricity will often rely heavily on solar panel
by yawnxyz 4y ago
> It is common for Amish areas to avoid dependence on the outside world, and thus the communities that do use electricity will often rely heavily on solar panels and other local forms of electricity generation.
> That aligns well with electric bicycles, which have small batteries that are easily charged by equally small solar panels.
> Mullet’s bike shop is entirely off-grid, with two dozen solar panels on the roof to power the store’s electricity. Public e-bike charging stations are also becoming more popular in Amish country, which are simple to create with a series of outdoor weather-protected 120VAC outlets.
It's really cool that what Amish actually care about is avoiding over-dependence. To me it kind of feels like all the people here who self-host their emails etc. — it's not because they shun the technology itself, they just want to be in control of their entire stack.
In some ways, doesn't this put the Amish squarely in the "hacker" demographic?
- tzs 4y ago> In some ways, doesn't this put the Amish squarely in the "hacker" demographic? Yes. You might enjoy this article [1]. [1] https://kk.org/thetechnium/amish-hackers-a/ https://kk.org/thetechnium/amish-hackers-a/
- yawnxyz 4y agoI did enjoy that article! Thanks for sharing
- sjs382 4y agoThere are different communities with different rules. See how one uses power tools: https://youtu.be/m0qenuKmong https://youtu.be/m0qenuKmong
- debacle 4y agoThe Mennonites that have done work for me can use a battery powered tool, an air powered tool attached to a compressor on a generator, an air powered tool on my compressor (but not theirs) plugged into my house (but not by them), a wired tool plugged into a generator, but not a wired tool plugged into my house. I just smile and nod.
- code_duck 4y agoReminds me of the various 'loopholes' Orthodox Jews use to get around their rules/laws regarding the Sabbath.
- Barrin92 4y agoI think that's stretching the term. Self reliance is part of a lot of ways of living but central to 'hacking' is transgression of boundaries and repurposing of tools in unorthodox ways and that's very far from the Amish spirit. Hacking inherently has a tolerance for risk and experiment that conservative adoption of tech tries to avoid.
- juujian 4y agoI think it's true that the Amish deserve respect as craftspeople, but it's still important to maintain some critical distance. They are still deeply religious folks, with orthodox views who cede a lot of control to their local pastor. I would not know much about it other than that they are very heterogeneous, but it appears that there is a steady stream of folks who want out, and those who exit get shunned by their previous communities.
- gptgpp 4y ago[flagged]
- mattnewton 4y ago> I mean, if Amish people want to have a society where (in most Amish subcultures), women are essentially uneducated broodmares that aren't encouraged to do anything that conflicts with popping out babies... Is that really that much worse than how our broader culture needs to import truckloads of immigrants to maintain healthy population levels? ..huh? It’s not like the US is importing Amish from other countries, we’re allowing people who want to immigrate to work here (albeit too slowly). I don’t get this argument. > Amish Elder to assign you a nice Amish woman This is so far from my own beliefs in individual liberty I’m not sure how to engage frankly
- BenFranklin100 4y agoThis is an offensive comment. Those ‘truckloads of immigrants’ are people seeking a better life for themselves in a new country. Nearly all of us Americans are immigrants. Amish woman are more than ‘essentially uneducated broodmares as well.
- nextaccountic 4y agoYour comment is sarcastic, right? > I mean really, so much anxiety over the Amish, who have they ever harmed? By the looks of it, women
- dang 4y agoWe've banned this account for posting flamewar comments and ignoring our request to stop. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- csomar 4y agoDo you control the photovoltaic cells production or the lithium cells supply chain? Probably not…
- colechristensen 4y agoNo more than you control iron ore mines or steel mills. The Amish aren’t targeting the Stone Age.
- soganess 4y agoThere is a Mitch Hedberg joke about escalators that applies here. Almost all e-bikes can, at the very least, be used without battery power. Some can even be essentially "de-electrified" if need be. The fail state for an e-bike is "slightly less convenient."
- csomar 4y agoGood point. I stand corrected.
- bigmattystyles 4y agoYea, though some of them are insanely heavy that without the assist, it’s quite a workout!
- Doxin 4y agoGenerally the mid-motor models have some fairly serious friction when unpowered. Hub motors usually have way less friction, sometimes to the point of basically being a regular bicycle if you don't put the battery in.
- klyrs 4y agoAs far as I can tell, the difference is in consumption/durability. They don't buy cars because they'd be hooked on the gas supply chain. But if you buy a solar panel, it's yours. And the ship has sailed on lithium batteries -- cell phones are permitted in limited contexts.
- aleph_minus_one 4y ago> In some ways, doesn't this put the Amish squarely in the "hacker" demographic? I would say: "No." Hacking is about making objects (very often computers in a general sense, but hacking is not restricted to it) do things that the creator did not intend them to do, and is often against the intention of the creator of the object. In this sense, a central component of what makes hacking what it is, is subverting things. Amish culture is, on the other hand, about obeying the rules of their culture. So, what the Amish do is self-sufficiency, but at most very rarely hacking.