Eric Brende belongs to a rare breed.

Not only is he a soap-making, rickshaw-driving Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, which makes him unusual enough.

But the native Kansan also believes most people would be better off if they jettisoned many of today’s automated, labor-saving machines and other devices, such as cars, computers and televisions.

Instead, they should adopt a slower, saner lifestyle that runs counter to the fast-paced, technology-laden lives many Americans lead these days.

That’s the argument the 43-year-old Brende makes in his new book, “Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology,” ($24.95, HarperCollins, August 2004).

The book tells the story of the 18 months Brende and his wife, Mary, spent in a farming community closely related to the Amish, or Old Order Mennonites — but even more rustic, and devoid of labor-saving machines.

That meant living without a car, electric stove, refrigerator or running water, as well as more modern gadgetry, such as computers, cell phones and text messagers.

Brende found that the community members, which he dubbed “the Minimites,” appeared to be happier, healthier and have more leisure time than most Americans who were immersed in a world of technological excess.

“My book is basically the story of a quest that I personally undertake, and I’m joined by my (then) new bride, to discover really how much technology do we need to lead a full and leisurely life, not to mention a healthy life, too,” Brende says.

“I believe that we do more work for our machines than they do for us. If you look at why the world is running out of resources, it’s not (due to) human beings. It’s our machines.”

Brende, who studied as an undergraduate at Kansas University from 1980 to 1982, will discuss his book and sign copies at 2 p.m. Saturday at Borders, 700 N.H.

He credits his time at KU with sparking his interest in technology and machines.

“The kernel of the idea for my book was hatched at KU, through this integrated humanities program. One of the pet peeves of the professors who taught this course was technology — and not just any technology — but the automatic machine,” Brende says.

After two years of study at KU, Brende attended Yale University, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English. Then he returned to his native Topeka, earning a bachelor’s degree in biology from Washburn University in 1986. He later earned a graduate degree from MIT.

A serendipitous event led to the 18-month experience that Brende details in his book.

“While on a bus to MIT, I stumbled upon a member of an Old Order Mennonite community, which is close cousins to the Amish, but more (technologically) strict. Through that contact, I was able to spend a year and a half in this community as an experiment, as an extension of my graduate work,” Brende says.

These days, Brende lives with his wife and three children in an old St. Louis neighborhood. They live a decidedly low-tech lifestyle, riding their bikes most places, though they do have a 1983 Honda for longer trips.

Their kitchen is equipped with a small refrigerator and a gas stove, and their house is cooled by electric fans, not air conditioning. They have no television or computer; Brende is able to e-mail his publisher by biking to the local library and using a terminal there.

Brende makes specialty soap, which he sells at a local farmers market, and also drives a rickshaw in downtown St. Louis and other neighborhoods.

“At some point I realized,” he says, “that if anyone was going to listen to me, I’d have to do more than make an argument from an armchair, swaddled in technology.”