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A link to the person's website: http://opensourceecology.org/ http://opensourceecology.org/ Also, I always want to remind folks of an immensely successful exp

A link to the person's website: http://opensourceecology.org/ http://opensourceecology.org/ Also, I always want to remind folks of an immensely successful experiment in communal living, the Hutterites (who love technology, by the way, unlike the Ahmish): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutterite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutterite

nsxwolf 12y ago
The Amish don't hate technology, they're just very careful and deliberate about what new technologies they adopt. There's wide adoption of technologies which improve upon, but don't radically alter, a traditional technology. For instance, many communities accept the battery powered lantern in place of a gas lantern.
- aaron695 12y ago
  I believe they fully except modern medicine for instance? I though they believed many technologies disrupted happiness, because it took away from peoples interactions with each other. Or something like that. Which quite frankly is a totally plausible theory. Other than medicine/health technology I don't think there's a lot of proof other tech makes us happier directly. (Obviously someone needs to use a computer to make drugs, grow enough food, but it doesn't have to be them)
  - lutusp 12y ago
    > I believe they fully except [sic] modern medicine for instance? Wait a second. "Except" in this context means to refuse. The word you want, "Accept", means to give consent. Normally a malaprop like this is benign, but this one reverses the meaning of the sentence in which it appears.
    - jnbiche 12y ago
      Yeah, I had already parsed the phrase 3 or 4 times by the time I finally understood what had happened.
  - derekp7 12y ago
    The way I heard it explained -- they prefer to avoid any technology that leaves them too dependent on others outside of their community. Otherwise the outside can have some influence / control over them, instead of being self sufficient. These rules can be relaxed where safety is concerned (i.e., lights on their carriages, refrigeration for the milk), but the lights are powered by batteries that they charge on the farm (from the diesel generator that is used to power the milk refrigeration).

nsxwolf 12y ago

The Amish don't hate technology, they're just very careful and deliberate about what new technologies they adopt. There's wide adoption of technologies which improve upon, but don't radically alter, a traditional technology. For instance, many communities accept the battery powered lantern in place of a gas lantern.

aaron695 12y ago
I believe they fully except modern medicine for instance? I though they believed many technologies disrupted happiness, because it took away from peoples interactions with each other. Or something like that. Which quite frankly is a totally plausible theory. Other than medicine/health technology I don't think there's a lot of proof other tech makes us happier directly. (Obviously someone needs to use a computer to make drugs, grow enough food, but it doesn't have to be them)
- lutusp 12y ago
  > I believe they fully except [sic] modern medicine for instance? Wait a second. "Except" in this context means to refuse. The word you want, "Accept", means to give consent. Normally a malaprop like this is benign, but this one reverses the meaning of the sentence in which it appears.
  - jnbiche 12y ago
    Yeah, I had already parsed the phrase 3 or 4 times by the time I finally understood what had happened.
- derekp7 12y ago
  The way I heard it explained -- they prefer to avoid any technology that leaves them too dependent on others outside of their community. Otherwise the outside can have some influence / control over them, instead of being self sufficient. These rules can be relaxed where safety is concerned (i.e., lights on their carriages, refrigeration for the milk), but the lights are powered by batteries that they charge on the farm (from the diesel generator that is used to power the milk refrigeration).