Prologue: "To Anyone Who Will Listen" -- Part 1: Quiet Search : "Over the Mountain" -- "One of the Science Capitals of the World" -- "Lots of Bad News" -- "Caretaker of a National Treasure" -- "Spook Stuff" -- "Our Own Log Lady" -- "A Powerful Thing" -- "Back to the Land" -- "A Low Roar" -- Part 2: Quiet Discovery : "Local Nazi Diaspora" -- "Command the Evil to Be Gone" -- "Murder by WiFi" -- "Papers and Pencils" -- "Behind the Curve" -- "Mountain Justice" -- "Where's the Hospital?" -- "The True Epitome of Darkness" -- Part 3: Quiet End? : "A Do-or-Die Situation" -- "You've Got to Experience It" -- "The Only Way Out" -- "Shutter the Place and Move On" -- "Don't You Forget This" -- "The Never-Ending Story" -- Epilogue: "Masters of Social Distancing". An award-winning journalist takes us deep into the Appalachian Mountains where the last truly quiet town of America exists and where its residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity, challenging us to rethink the role of tech in our lives Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned. It is home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology. With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the observatory's telescopes, residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity; schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. Kurcxy introduces readers to a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves; "electrosensitives" who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff's department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades; a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow; and ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of living. Kurczy asks: Is a less connected life desirable? Is it even possible? -- adapted from jacket |