When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival

Matthew Stein

From Amazon.com                                                

When Technology Fails is the first to offer, under one cover, basic instructions and recommended resources for the wide range of skills and technologies necessary for self-reliant living and achieving mastery of all kinds of emergency conditions. A user-friendly "bible" in the tradition of the Whole Earth Catalog, this book provides information that will help the average person become more self-reliant. In an era of super-storms, burgeoning population, massive earthquakes, global warming, and record-breaking floods and droughts, more and more people are seeking to prepare themselves to deal with the difficult times that may lie ahead. When Technology Fails addresses this universal concern in one engaging and concise volume for the general reader. A directory of resources and an instructional guide to sustainable technologies, it outlines survival strategies for dealing with changes that affect food, water, shelter, energy, health, communications, and essential goods and services. When Technology Fails provides something for everyone, from parents who want to help their families when a disaster strikes, to the go-it-alone survivalist, to the eco-minded person who wishes to tread more lightly on the earth - whatever the future may hold.

Peak Oil Resources Review:

When Technology Fails catches your attention with its intriguing title.  Just what does happen when technology fail?  You may not have asked yourself that question before.  Admittedly, prior to learning about Peak Oil, my answer would have been, "Technology doesn't fail."  Well it does and it will.  What will you do when it happens?  This book is the foundation for learning what prior generations lived and breathed... and what we have neglected.  

To be clear, this book is not an encyclopedic collection of everything that you did or did not want to know about everything.  Nor would I classify it as a Tom Brown-style field manual.  But it does cover things like supplies and preparations, emergency measures for survival, water and food acquisition, low-tech medicine, healing, and chemistry, building ecosmart dwellings, and more.  These topics and others (far too many to list them all)  will serve to "wet your whistle", not make you a pro.  That is the point; to get you thinking so that you do have half a clue of what to do when technology does indeed fail.  And after you have exhausted the content in the book, Stein gives an exceptional list of additional resources to delve deeper into the topics that may have caught your eye.    

When you read When Technology Fails, you will learn something.  Your eyes will be opened to things that you may have taken for granted.  In the end, you will be left with a resounding "cool!" from everything that Stein presents so well.  Sure, there is uncertainty in the future.  There always is.  But without this book, you may not know where to go or how to proceed. When Technology Fails is the roadmap that you want and need to navigate whatever may lie ahead.  

Matthew Stein
Matthew Stein holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. He is an engineer, author and building contractor. He has also worked as a schoolteacher, carpenter, and rock climbing and ski instructor. As the owner of Aloha Aina Builders, Stein has built hurricane resistant, energy efficient and environmentally friendly homes. As a mechanical engineer and president of Stein Design, he has designed consumer water filtration devices, commercial water filtration systems, photovoltaic roofing panels, medical bacteriological filters, drinking fountains, emergency chemical drench systems, computer disk drives, portable fiberglass buildings and automated assembly machinery for Open Energy, Hewlett Packard, Seagate, Plantronics, Duraflame, Haws, and IGT, among other companies. He currently resides with his wife Josie (see www.inner-journeys.com ) in the High Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe, CA. Additionally, Stein holds a number of US patents and was a National Merit Scholar. For many years, Stein has pursued avid interests in renewable energy, alternative healing, sustainable growth, and preventative medicine. He is available for lectures and workshops. Check out his green building and mechanical engineering web site at www.stein-design.com and his book's web site at www.whentechfails.com.