This article argues for an “off the grid” approach to thinking about technology and technical communication. First, the author presents a metatheory that connects numerous descriptive theories of technology into a unified approach to philosophizing about technology. Then, the author uses this unified approach to argue that the metaphor of off the grid living provides technical communicators with a way of rethinking our approach to pedagogy, user-centeredness, and the future of our field.

Technical communication's attempt to prioritize theories of scholarship and pedagogy has resulted in several authors contributing a three-dimensional framework to approach technology: the instrumental perspective, the critical humanist perspective, and the user-centered perspective [1–3]. This article traces connections between this framework for technical communication and the philosophies of Michel de Certeau [4] and Andrew Feenberg [5], suggesting that the primary connection is a turn toward “rhetoric” as a mediator between scientific and philosophical communication. The article concludes that the current paradigm for understanding technology can be best understood by exploring three conjoined, yet competing, mentalities between a scientific, philosophical, and rhetorical worldview. While this three-dimensional approach provides a strong foundation for technical communication pedagogy and scholarship, it should continue to be re-examined for potential anomalies as the field continues to develop an identity.