This morning, after making my morning cup of tea and settling into my chair at my desk at work & going through my morning emails, I came across Khoi Vinh’s post about Pocahontas County in West Virginia, USA, a town which falls within the National Radio Quiet Zone.
Home to the Green Bank Telescope, one of the most “impressive engineering marvels in the world,” whose job is to meaure radio waves from throughout the universe, Pocahontas County is banned from using any form of operating wireless device.
Why? Because the Green Bank Telescope is more sensitive than your best friend after she finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her for the last 10 months. This super sensitive “I just want to be alone right now!” telescope is so sensitive that any other radio noise would mask any signals the telescope would be attempting to look for.
While the prospect of living without any form of wireless technology is basically unfathomable to most, I am sure there are a lot of benefits to this kind of living. Although this was not exactly a unanimous political or social decision or a radical overhaul in the perception of modern living made by the inhabitants of Pocahontas, the people living there seem more than happy about the ban on wireless devices.
To which I have to say that we could all take on a bit of wireless-free living and re-connect with nature and the people around us or just use some time away from our mobile devices as a means to de-stress and get away from it all. So why not try turning off all of your wireless and electronic devices for one full weekend each month and experience what it’s like to be a human sans technology?
Don’t forget to check out the podcasts & sign up for LFB’s conscious living challenge.
