John Coffer lives on a fifty acre farm three miles outside of Dundee, New York. Home is a wood cabin. Aside from various subsistence activities on the farm John is also a master and teacher of wetplate photography. I learnt about his life from Ben Wu and David Usu who made this film about him:

COFFER from thismustbetheplace on Vimeo.

It’s a beautiful visual reflection on the nature of home. At one point John Coffer considers the role of technology in his life:

I’ve kind of created a hybrid situation where there are some things I continue to do the old nineteenth century way. Some things may be the way it was done before Christ. But then there are cutting edge high tech that I have here and do. I have  wind generator, solar panels, a laptop computer how you can blend the old timeless things with the latest technology to do the things that need to be done in life. I think there are going to be more people looking back for models from the past and use it to blend in with new ideas and technology today.

Here’s someone who thinks clearly about the value of all technologies and particularly their costs – and makes decisions on that basis. It’s a slightly modified, moderate version of the Amish philosophy where the adoption of the new is considered in terms of its impact on the community. It’s akin to Kevin Kelly’s aspiration of finding the minimum amount of technology to maximise his options.