When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival

Offers advice for coping with disruptions in everyday life during emergency situations, covering emergency preparedness, first aid, renewable energy, alternative healing, and low-tech methods for securing basic provisions.

Matthew Stein holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. Currently president of Stein Design, he has designed consumer water filtration devices, commercial water filtration systems, medical bacteriological filters, drinking fountains, emergency chemical drench systems, computer disk drives, portable fiberglass buildings and automated assembly machinery for Hewlett Packard, Seagate, Plantronics, Duraflame, Haws, and IGT, among other companies. He has also worked as a schoolteacher, carpenter, and rock climbing and ski instructor. Stein holds a number of US patents and was a National Merit Scholar. For many years, Stein has pursued avid interests in renewable energy, alternative healing, and preventative medicine. He currently resides in Truckee, California (near Lake Tahoe) with his wife and two children.Stein's outdoor experience includes considerable backpacking and camping (starting at age 5), alpine ascents in the Canadian Rockies and High Sierras, solo winter ascents of peaks in the High Sierras and numerous Yosemite Valley hard rock climbs (including several Half Dome and El Capitan big walls). He volunteers his services as a guide and guide trainer for blind skiers with both the Sacramento Sierra Club and the Ski for Light blind cross-country skier programs.