Geek in Review: On the Benefits of Going Off The Grid

This week's Geek in Review was inspired by my technology-free vacation last week, where I learned the benefits of going off the grid:

This ultra-connected world we live in is really cool, isn’t it? Any information we could possibly want is literally at our fingertips: we get directions from Google Maps sent straight to our cell phones, our GPS devices ensure that we’re never lost (despite our best efforts) and the days of wondering what that actor’s name is, or what the lyric to that song actually was (Alex the Seal? What the hell does that mean?) are gone forever, replaced by just a few keystrokes at Google or Wikipedia.

Do you know the actual phone numbers of the people you call regularly? Or is that just saved in your cell phone? When you’re online, do you actually know your passwords, or are they auto-saved as well? Do you have a roadmap in your car, or a Thomas Guide? What would you do if you got lost without a cell phone or a GPS device? Have you ever stopped to think about how dependent we actually are on technology, and what we’d do if we suddenly lost it one day?

I think about it all the time, and I have considered trying my hand at writing a short SF story about what happens when all the technology we rely upon goes kaput one day. Because whenever anything bad happens to technology, the most correct way to describe it is “kaput.” I’m serious. Go look it up at Google, or go to the library and use the card catalog if you really want to see what I’m talking about.

If you don't have time to go to the library at the moment, keep reading: I unintentionally got to experience how it felt to be entirely “off the grid” and live a technology-free life for five days beginning last Thursday.

It turns out that it's very similar to the benefits of not being seen, without as many exploding larches.

Comments

[angie k]

Card catolog ftw!

Nice article! I'm not as connected as I could be but I wonder what it would be like to go completely without it. I often think at my job how crazy it would be if we didn't have computers. I work in a finance office and the thought of no finance office software makes me cry huge salty tears of fear and loathing. One day I'll go off the grid. One day.

Nice article. Thanks! :)

[sxKitten]

Oh, but the exploding larches are the best part!

I'm going off the grid next week, but it shouldn't be that much of a shock as I still haven't managed to program anyone's numbers into my phone and am thus forced to carry them all around in my head.

I'm going to miss Bloglines, though ...

[Keri]

You should read Dies the Fire by SM Sterling. It addresses what happens what all of sudden, all our technology goes kaput. Pretty interesting.

And dammit, I can't read Suicide Girls at work.

[Tara]

I'm going off the grind in September for my birthday. Partly because it's too expensive on a cruise ship, but also because this will be the first time I will be free in 2 1/2 years (I'm not taking my son, so I can get some down time). Boy I need that:)
~~TARA~~

[szark]

Very nice article! I don't go off the grid as much as I used to, but that's mainly because most of my friends are online, and I have no other way to talk to them.

There was a great episode of The Outer Limits (1995 version) dealing with our overdependence on technology: "Stream of Consciousness" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0667957/

Unfortunately it isn't one of the episodes they released on DVD, so I don't know if it's possible to find a copy.

[Ailadinya]

Yeah, I'd like to say that I'll be "going off the grid" for my next vacation, but that would be a lie. Since my next vacation will be as an enforcer for PAX. I won't be able to escape the grid the entire week. Especially since I'm bringing so much with me. Glad you had an enjoyable vacation!

[Spacehamster]

Great article Wil. That's precisely the reason I left the big city and returned to my home state. Tasmania is an island, so the entire state is effectively "off the grid". And I love it!

[TAS]

For a really retro version of this idea, try E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops." Then realize that it was written nearly 100 years ago. It's almost eerily visionary.

http://brighton.ncsa.uiuc.edu/prajlich/forster.html

[GeekessDaisy]

Hubby and I are geeks to the core, and computer everything. Once a year we go about a week without anything ran by power, including batteries (like flashlights etc)

It's a great way to remind the kids (and us) just how nice we have our lives at home, and how nice it is to have a house (we tent) a stove (we only use campfire for cooking) and entertainment (card/boardgames and books are all we get.)

Puts us in our place for a week, then we go right back to living on the computers, and watching TV. (but with more respect for what we have)

[lauren]

It took me a few minutes to realize that "Alex the Seal" must be "Our Lips are Sealed".

And no, I did not use the Internet to attempt to figure it out.

[wolfger]

I'm a hard core internet addict and general computer/tech geek, but I go to Pennsic (google it, ya geeks), and I don't miss tech at all. Off the grid can be a beautiful place to be.

[kc9eow The Great Radish]

Too bad my library got rid of the card catalog. I always get off the grid for about 2 weeks every summer. It's good for the kids.

[William McDuff]

Can I recommend Corey Doctorow's "When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth"? Available at http://www.craphound.com/overclocked/download/ it's a nice short story, if rather intensely techie...

[Marc Costanzo]

You know what is sad :(, Wil. My library doesn't have a card catalog anymore. You look your books up on a computer. How I long for the days of getting paper cuts flipping through the card catalog to find sources.

Thank you for that trip down memory lane.

[busymomma]

I love those type of weeks. We usually go camping once a year, totally off the grid, not even a tv, sometimes not even a radio. The kids even love it.

I can't remember when I saw a card catalogue last.

[Offshored2007]

I'll send you my comments on your post via a hand-written snail-mail. Now what is your address again, I think I had it in my Blackberry...

[Carla]

I also recommend Dies the Fire....everything is kaput. Quick read sometimes a bit farfetched.

[burkbum]

I was OTG for three days last weekend, for the first time in several years. It was glorious. Few things can compare to the simple joys of community (or family), sunsets and evening breezes. Returning to the world, I felt so wonderful that I'm already planning another short OTG weekend. It was like doing the Master Cleanse for the spirit.

[Rockman67]

Well... being dependent on technology is bad and good... I cannot imagine me passing a day without my laptop, email, cellphone or even mp3 player... I work as a computer geek and if my computer goes down I won't be able to do any work... I cannot call clients since all my contacts are in the computer...

I do however carry a paper Thomas Guide along with my GPS in my car...

Even when I'm backpacking I do take my mp3 player, Gameboy DS just to keep me entertaint after sunset... I used to take cards to keep me entertain while isolated in the wilderness but not I don't even bother taking cards... I do however take a solar cell mounted on my backpack to charge my mp3 player...

Anyhow nice blog

[pistachoo]

What a lovely vacation!

My family got our first computer when I was in Grade 10, so by the time I graduated from high school, we still weren't really connected the way I am today. Nevertheless, our 7-week camping trip driving from Vancouver to PEI and back again was amazing. Twelve years later, and I am still eager to show people my hundreds of actual taken-with-a-film-camera-and-printed-on-real-paper photos!

Totally unrelated now, a fun read:

http://tinyurl.com/ynsztn

Cheers!

[Duane]

I went to Costa Rica for a wedding years ago, and I was forced to manually unjack from the Matrix myself. It was absolutely great. I soon followed that act by removing my watch and turning off my cell phone. It's amazing how relaxing it is once you make the decision to do it.

It's really easy to blow four hours on the computer and not know what you did. But four hours is a lot of quality time with your kids, or time walking on the beach, or in a pub with friends. We've become so accustomed to moving quickly and always behind up to date with everything, but truthfully almost nothing we do can't wait a few days or a few hours.

[FABIAN]

Wil,

Are the machines tied to us or are we tied to them?

FG

[Nadia]

I was thinking exactly the same thing today. My phone charger broke and I went out to get a new one and as I was waiting around in the shop, the exact same thought came to my mind... "what on Earth would we do without technology??"

However, I *do* own a road map directory that sits proudly in the glove box of my car and I love to use it. <> A lot of people tell me to just get a GPS already, but I don't want to.

[bobD]

most of my co-workers check cell phone and email and im while they're on vacation. NOT ME! i refuse to do that... dammit, i'm on vacation.

heck, i stopped wearing a watch years ago and LOVE IT. don't need it, don't miss it. partly that was due to a scene in "twice upon a time" (exec produced by george lucas) where one of the characters tries to describe time and he makes it sound so absurd that we wear a watch to tell us that we don't have enough of this thing called 'time'.

and regarding your idea, wil, for a SF story about tech going kaput: you should watch the old sf classic "the day the earth stood still".

bobD

[penguindevil]

Mixed reality, but not mixed feelings. I've spent most of my spare time in front of a computer since 1988 (a minimum of 3 hours a day for the last 20 years, usually more), it's really been the focal point of my day. Plus, dvd's, mp3's all of that.

But I think it is a complete waste of ones life. It's what I do to fill the time because I'm too bored and lazy to do anything worthwhile. I would love to never see a computer or TV again, but while they are around, I just can't stay away.

I think that the computer indoctrination that we now give to children at home and at school is one of the most destructive mistakes our culture has made. People seem to forget that before there were computers in schools and homes, children were plenty smart. People were plenty smart. The very people who invented this stuff grew up without it. Somehow, Einstein became Einstein with no help from "Baby Einstein".

Also, I think that all of the computers in schools not only hinders children's education, but prevent poorer districts from hiring enough good teachers, which is what our children and our society really need.