Commentary
American farmer, author, and conservationist Wendell Berry died on Aug. 31 at 92 years old. Berry taught us how to take better care of the land and how to live a simpler life.
He also showed us how to relate to technology. In one of his most famous essays, “Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer” (1987), Berry explained why he chose not to buy into the personal computer craze of the late 1980s.
Today, we’re in the middle of another technology craze: artificial intelligence. AI models and applications have saturated daily life and are changing the way we work. Forty years into the computer revolution, we’re still trying to figure out how to stay human around machines.
But Berry can help us. The reasons he gave for not buying a computer are equally good reasons for setting healthy boundaries with AI.
Two things to know about Berry at the outset. He was no luddite. He used tools to farm that he could purchase locally and repair himself. And he had a beautiful working relationship with his wife, Tanya. She typed his work on a Royal Standard typewriter, flagging edits as she worked.
“She is my best critic,” Berry wrote, “because she is the one most familiar with my habitual errors and weaknesses.”
The Rape of Nature
First, Berry wrote that he didn’t want his work as a writer to have a direct dependence on companies that use environmentally destructive methods to generate energy. In his day, most electrical power came from strip-mined coal, a practice that disrupted landscapes and caused water and air pollution.
“Virtually all of our consumption now is extravagant,” wrote Berry, “and virtually all of it consumes the world.”
Today, AI companies are striving to meet AI demand by building large data centers to house the material equipment for AI-driven computing. And just like strip mining, data centers exact a significant environmental cost.
A single AI-focused data center (100 megawatts), for example, can consume as much electricity as a small city and more water per day than an average town (5 million gallons). Little wonder, then, that many are concerned about the effects of building more data centers to power AI.
Closer to What Matters
Second, Berry didn’t see that a computer would bring him one step nearer to the things that mattered to him: “peace, economic justice, ecological health, political honesty, family and community stability, good work.”
It’s tempting to think that our digital devices achieve this. But take a closer look at Berry’s list, and we see that those things are not so easily attained through gadgets.
Peace, for example. It seems that the more screens we use, the less peaceful we become. We lose connection to the practices that bring us peace, including time in nature, in-person interaction with others, and reflective thinking.
Discarding the ‘Old Model’
Next, Berry pointed out that technological innovation often encourages discarding the “old model” in favor of the new one. For Berry, that wasn’t just a typewriter; it was his wife and fellow worker. The extra work and effort were worth the intimacy and productivity he and Tanya enjoyed together.
When a screen gets between us and our world, something, or someone, is lost. When we turn to AI chatbots for answers, therapy, or companionship, who in our families or communities are we not turning to?
Even pulling out our smartphones around others can have an effect. We send the message that whatever is on that screen is more interesting or important than they are.
Fooling Ourselves With Technology
What’s the final reason Berry offered for not buying a computer?
He didn’t buy the hype that it would make him a better writer.
“I do not wish to fool myself,” Berry wrote. “I disbelieve, and therefore strongly resent, the assertion that I or anybody else could write better or more easily with a computer than with a pencil.”
Berry cautioned against consumers becoming salespeople for corporations by falling for marketing hype or believing that life is only better with purchasable products.
There’s plenty of hype surrounding AI today. When they’re not warning about the apocalyptic doom that could stem from their creations, the leaders of major AI companies are happy to expound on the promised benefits of AI. And while they’re quietly working on the next big AI advancement, they’re content to leave us hooked on their chatbots, and we’re already reaping the consequences.
A 2026 study in the journal Science found that interactions with sycophantic AI (AI chatbots built to flatter, please, and affirm users) decrease prosocial intentions and increase dependence.
For Berry, the freedom to choose makes all the difference.
In a 2019 interview, Berry was asked about the impact of his essay 30 years later.
“The idea that you’re free if you buy everything that’s marketed to you is absurd,” he said. “You’ve become free only when you begin to choose. Take it—or leave it. That’s our freedom, that’s real freedom.
“I don’t want my life to be lived for me by a machine.”
Berry will be missed, but in his work, he has left us with more than enough to help us stay whole and fully human in our technological age.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
