[darxius]

Interesting story, but I don't see what it has to do with HN topics.

If the author's goal was to make a parallel between using less technology and being mature and peaceful, I would have to disagree. The Amish are an interesting people, but thinking that their way of living should be the norm is a romantic response to how society uses technology in the wrong ways. I firmly believe that we can only grow by increasing the technology we use across all walks of life (education, resource management, communication, labour, etc.)

[tzs]

The Amish do adopt technology--they are just careful about it. They want to understand the social aspects first, so they can figure out how to adopt the good aspects of new technology while avoiding the bad aspects.

See Kevin Kelly's article "Amish Hackers" [1] for an interesting look at the Amish and their approach to technology.

[1] http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/02/amish_hackers...

[sgarman]

I think the real goal with this kind of question is should we be more critical in how we adopt new technologies. Should we think about both positive and negatives effects on culture and society. Right now we essentially have a culture that grabs on to anything new as soon as possible and then deal with the consequences when they arrive. I think this argument is especially potent with the HN crew.