Over the summer I traveled back in time.
To my brother's place, to be exact.
He lives in a college town, but we weren't there to teach or learn; we were there to make an album. The recording studio was pretty state-of-the-art. My brother isn't.
He doesn't have a digital recording device or MP3 player. Or a computer at home. Or cable or satellite TV (though he does have an idiot box on which he can watch rented movies).
He doesn't want these things.
He reads books he borrows from the library. I went with him to the creaky, homey old library a couple of times, to take advantage of its free wireless internet. I don't live in the past (unless you count the fact that I don't have a smartphone yet). I'd brought my laptop. 
I'm a freelancer and I have to stay in touch even when I'm away from home, in case any work comes up. And I have to be able to do the work, if it does.
More amazingly, for someone who lives in a small town in Vermont, my brother doesn't have a car. He walks to the school where he teaches. He takes commuter buses up and down the state when he wants to go somewhere. He rents a car now and then when a big trip is necessary.
On reflection, though, that doesn't conform to the theme of living in the past. It feels more like living in the future. But that's a story for another – a future – day.
After our studio sessions, back at his house, we went even further back in time: to our childhood, when we read books about dinosaurs. Only in those days there were maybe ten or twenty dinosaurs pictured in the books. 
Paleontologists have since discovered many, many more dinosaurs. I realized with amazement, paging through my brother's thick, heavy new dinosaur book, that every dinosaur we knew of as kids – tyrannosaurus rex, trachodon, triceratops, allosaurus, ankylosaurus, what used to be called a brontosaurus – is now known to be a whole family of sauropods, dozens or hundreds in each group.
Article comments
1 - Jeannie Danna
Hi Joel,
I admire both you and your brother!
It would be great to live in NYC and experience your world, but it would be equally wonderful to slow down and not try to acquire every new piece of plastic created.
I love the fact that he doesn't own a car! Hats off to your brother...:)
2 - Ruvy
Jon,
I enjoyed reading your article. I live in a rural area, where, if there were sufficient jobs, a person could walk to work. Were that the case, I could unplug the computer, the cell phone and all the rest of the paraphernalia that keeps me "connected" and forget about the world at large. That appears to be what your brother has done.
Unfortunately this machine is how I make my bread and cheese (as is yours), so I keep it connected. And the buses do not run reliably, so I rely on neighbors to help me to get from one place to another when the buses won't (walking is out of the question - I haven't figured out the skill of out-running Arab bullets). I much prefer a simple life like your brother's.
3 - Jeanne Browne
Nice piece, Jon, and greetings from another dinosaur - or part dinosaur, anyway. I love my desktop computer and cable TV, but I don't have a cell phone or any other new-fangled device. I regularly fantasize about mowing down cell-phone-occupied shoppers in the supermarket with my cart full of non-processed foods. I frankly admit that I hate - not dislike, hate - the 21st century. This is not my time and never will be; I'm a holdover from the mid/late 20th century and actually should have been in my prime in the 40s, even though those were not easy years for the world. Your brother has made a brave and difficult choice to stand against the tide of so-called progress and avoid as much of the depressing disintegration of our civilization as he can. You didn't say so, but I'll bet he's a more peaceful, contented man than most (I never presume actual happiness). Hope you had a good time back there!