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Having followed Paul's writing for awhile, I feel like I get where he's coming from and what he hopes to do with this endeavor. I really respect that. But I st

Having followed Paul's writing for awhile, I feel like I get where he's coming from and what he hopes to do with this endeavor. I really respect that. But I still have to question the viability, and ultimately the value, of this honestly rather extreme abstentionism. If he were moving to a village in Thailand, things would be different – he'd be surrounded by people who don't need the internet, and the society he'd be living in wouldn't expect him to use it. But, as far as I can tell, he's staying in NYC. The penalty for disconnecting is going to be disproportionately greater there than it would be in a society that doesn't expect even its homeless to be able to get government forms from an internet-connected computer in a public library. He can try to live in New York circa 1992, but he's ultimately going to be expected to live in New York 2012. I think a more productive self-denial would be to limit one's internet usage to libraries and internet cafes. Cancel the FiOS and 4G, divorce yourself from Twitter and email, but leave the option open of making a trip down to the library to take care of the things in your daily life that actually require the internet.

tomjen3 15y ago
Oh absolutely. My parents moved to city that they had never been to at about that time. My mom had to call the directory to ask for realtor so they could find some place to live. It was back when people actually used the phonebook to look up phone-numbers. It is that long ago. Today almost none of the tech in available. Payphones still exist, but you have to know where they are -- and they are not exactly cheap. Heck he can't even buy stuff at a supermarket, since those computers are almost certainly wired to send the purchase information back to be mined for data. And that wasn't unheard of back then. Today? Do they even have a directory anymore?
cjoh 15y ago
Agreed. If he's looking to "disconnect" it'd be more interesting to see him also go rural for a year.
- zmmz 15y ago
  I disagree. I think we all know that it's possible to "go rural". Many have done it. What Paul is doing is far more interesting and valuable to him as a tech journalist. I see this as a research project, not as a rejection of the web. To quote: > Now I want to see the internet at a distance. By separating myself from the constant connectivity, I can see which aspects are truly valuable, which are distractions for me, and which parts are corrupting my very soul. What I worry is that I'm so "adept" at the internet that I've found ways to fill every crevice of my life with it, and I'm pretty sure the internet has invaded some places where it doesn't belong. He will still live in NYC, still write tech articles, but by disconnecting he will constantly have some distance from the material. I will be happy to read his observations on the field around him through his new perspective.
nekojima 15y ago
"If he were moving to a village in Thailand" Having spent a few months in a village in Northern Thailand, I was quite happy on the speed our internet connection was usually providing us. Generally used for checking email, skype, news and that passive income sources were still working. Going rural in more remote places, where the area is cut off by rain or snow for some months of the year is far more challenging and interesting, at least for me. It shouldn't be, its the lives of the folks who live there everyday, we're just rather more lucky, most of the time. When I lost house connected internet for a week, having to use libraries and cafes in Canada was far more challenging, in terms of scheduling time to go and use, than it was using the internet in a rural Thai village. Good luck paying bills and checking your bank account (ATMs are an alternative) & investments when you can't use the internet & they now issue e-bill/e-statement, unless you pay extra for paper.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- Retric 15y ago
  If you combine the fraction of my FIOS and Cellphone bills that go to internet connectivity I am probably spending over 100$ a month. While ATM's and checks are annoying on net I would probably save money.
- maguay 15y ago
  Actually, I've gotten 3G coverage in the remotest parts of Thailand, places that only got electricity this year. I had more trouble staying connected in small towns and such in the US!
  - Mz 15y ago
    I have not been to Thailand but can vouch for the problems of small town America. I crossed the country this year, on foot and accepting rides. In parts of rural Texas, my Verizon service either could not be connected at all or would announce to me that I was in Mexico and "additional charges" would apply for getting online. Oy.
ramanujan 15y ago
It is pretty interesting to list everything internet-related (from VOIP to bill payments to search) and realize that we're in a period similar to the era in which electricity became a utility. In the early 20th century, electricity was still uncommon in many places; Lenin's slogan[1] in the 1920s was that "Communism = Soviet Power + Electrification of the whole country". Paul David[2] is an economic historian who pointed out that factories were completely redesigned once people realized they didn't need to be centered on a steam engine: Electric light bulbs were available by 1879, and there were generating stations in New York and London by 1881. Yet a thoughtful observer in 1900 would have found little evidence that the "electricity revolution" was making business more efficient. Steam-powered manufacturing had linked an entire production line to a single huge steam engine. As a result, factories were stacked on many floors around the central engine, with drive belts all running at the same speed. The flow of work around the factory was governed by the need to put certain machines close to the steam engine, rather than the logic of moving the product from one machine to the next. When electric dynamos were first introduced, the steam engine would be ripped out and the dynamo would replace it. Productivity barely improved. Eventually, businesses figured out that factories could be completely redesigned on a single floor. Production lines were arranged to enable the smooth flow of materials around the factory. Most importantly, each worker could have his or her own little electric motor, starting it or stopping it at will. The improvements weren't just architectural but social: Once the technology allowed workers to make more decisions, they needed more training and different contracts to encourage them to take responsibility. We can probably do yet another iteration on factories once the existence of ubiquitous data fully sinks in. For one thing, machines can now know the states of other machines in the factory and optimize their production accordingly. I guess Honda's dark factories are the first version of this. The overall phenomenon is really just Marc Andreessen's thesis[3] in another guise. Today, "Software is Eating the World", and software engineers + the internet are automating processes and arguably obsolescing many jobs. But if we warped back 80-90 years or so, we'd say that "Electricity is Eating the World", and electrical and mechanical engineers were the ones automating processes and obsolescing jobs. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOELRO_plan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOELRO_plan [2] http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_undercover_economist/2007/06/the_shock_of_the_new.html http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_undercover_economist/... [3] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190348090457651...

tomjen3 15y ago

Oh absolutely. My parents moved to city that they had never been to at about that time. My mom had to call the directory to ask for realtor so they could find some place to live. It was back when people actually used the phonebook to look up phone-numbers. It is that long ago. Today almost none of the tech in available. Payphones still exist, but you have to know where they are -- and they are not exactly cheap. Heck he can't even buy stuff at a supermarket, since those computers are almost certainly wired to send the purchase information back to be mined for data. And that wasn't unheard of back then. Today? Do they even have a directory anymore?

cjoh 15y ago

Agreed. If he's looking to "disconnect" it'd be more interesting to see him also go rural for a year.

zmmz 15y ago
I disagree. I think we all know that it's possible to "go rural". Many have done it. What Paul is doing is far more interesting and valuable to him as a tech journalist. I see this as a research project, not as a rejection of the web. To quote: > Now I want to see the internet at a distance. By separating myself from the constant connectivity, I can see which aspects are truly valuable, which are distractions for me, and which parts are corrupting my very soul. What I worry is that I'm so "adept" at the internet that I've found ways to fill every crevice of my life with it, and I'm pretty sure the internet has invaded some places where it doesn't belong. He will still live in NYC, still write tech articles, but by disconnecting he will constantly have some distance from the material. I will be happy to read his observations on the field around him through his new perspective.

nekojima 15y ago

"If he were moving to a village in Thailand" Having spent a few months in a village in Northern Thailand, I was quite happy on the speed our internet connection was usually providing us. Generally used for checking email, skype, news and that passive income sources were still working. Going rural in more remote places, where the area is cut off by rain or snow for some months of the year is far more challenging and interesting, at least for me. It shouldn't be, its the lives of the folks who live there everyday, we're just rather more lucky, most of the time. When I lost house connected internet for a week, having to use libraries and cafes in Canada was far more challenging, in terms of scheduling time to go and use, than it was using the internet in a rural Thai village. Good luck paying bills and checking your bank account (ATMs are an alternative) & investments when you can't use the internet & they now issue e-bill/e-statement, unless you pay extra for paper.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
Retric 15y ago
If you combine the fraction of my FIOS and Cellphone bills that go to internet connectivity I am probably spending over 100$ a month. While ATM's and checks are annoying on net I would probably save money.
maguay 15y ago
Actually, I've gotten 3G coverage in the remotest parts of Thailand, places that only got electricity this year. I had more trouble staying connected in small towns and such in the US!
- Mz 15y ago
  I have not been to Thailand but can vouch for the problems of small town America. I crossed the country this year, on foot and accepting rides. In parts of rural Texas, my Verizon service either could not be connected at all or would announce to me that I was in Mexico and "additional charges" would apply for getting online. Oy.

ramanujan 15y ago

It is pretty interesting to list everything internet-related (from VOIP to bill payments to search) and realize that we're in a period similar to the era in which electricity became a utility. In the early 20th century, electricity was still uncommon in many places; Lenin's slogan[1] in the 1920s was that "Communism = Soviet Power + Electrification of the whole country". Paul David[2] is an economic historian who pointed out that factories were completely redesigned once people realized they didn't need to be centered on a steam engine: Electric light bulbs were available by 1879, and there were generating stations in New York and London by 1881. Yet a thoughtful observer in 1900 would have found little evidence that the "electricity revolution" was making business more efficient. Steam-powered manufacturing had linked an entire production line to a single huge steam engine. As a result, factories were stacked on many floors around the central engine, with drive belts all running at the same speed. The flow of work around the factory was governed by the need to put certain machines close to the steam engine, rather than the logic of moving the product from one machine to the next. When electric dynamos were first introduced, the steam engine would be ripped out and the dynamo would replace it. Productivity barely improved. Eventually, businesses figured out that factories could be completely redesigned on a single floor. Production lines were arranged to enable the smooth flow of materials around the factory. Most importantly, each worker could have his or her own little electric motor, starting it or stopping it at will. The improvements weren't just architectural but social: Once the technology allowed workers to make more decisions, they needed more training and different contracts to encourage them to take responsibility. We can probably do yet another iteration on factories once the existence of ubiquitous data fully sinks in. For one thing, machines can now know the states of other machines in the factory and optimize their production accordingly. I guess Honda's dark factories are the first version of this. The overall phenomenon is really just Marc Andreessen's thesis[3] in another guise. Today, "Software is Eating the World", and software engineers + the internet are automating processes and arguably obsolescing many jobs. But if we warped back 80-90 years or so, we'd say that "Electricity is Eating the World", and electrical and mechanical engineers were the ones automating processes and obsolescing jobs. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOELRO_plan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOELRO_plan [2] http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_undercover_economist/2007/06/the_shock_of_the_new.html http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_undercover_economist/... [3] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405311190348090457651...