Opening paragraphs...........

For most of my life I owned very little.  I dropped out of college and for almost a decade wandered around remote parts of Asia in cheap sneakers and worn jeans, with lots of time and no money.  The cities I knew best were steeped in medieval richness; the lands I passed through were governed by ancient agricultural traditions.  When I reached for a physical object, it was almost surely made of wood, fiber, or stone.  I ate with my hands, trekked on foot through mountain valleys, and slept wherever.  I carried very little stuff.  My personal possessions totaled a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, a penknife, and some cameras.  Living close to the land, I experienced the immediacy that opens up when the buffer of technology is removed.  I got colder often, hotter more frequently, soaking wet a lot, bitten by insects faster, and synchronized quicker to the rhythm of the day and seasons.  Time seemed abundant.
-Kevin Kelly, What Technology Wants