And with that, we kept hiking. He was right. This was getting hard. More and more emails, texts, billboard signs, and TV ads were shining brighter than ever, luring me back to the comfort and safety zones where I thought I needed to be. It seemed like hours had gone by, when only minutes had passed, as I knew I didn’t have a job to make money to afford any of these new and shiny things.

I can’t do this anymore! All these things are only $19.99 plus shipping and handling! What a deal! This isn’t working for me. This hike toward something more natural, something organic, will cost too much anyway. I’m not lucky enough to get that.

(Excerpt from The Impression of a Good Life: Philosophical Engineering)

Philosophical Engineering

Back in the "day", survival was about defending you and your family from predators and knowing what to hunt for in order to survive. Fast forward to "today", and the concept of defending and hunting are still relevant. We have to be on the defense for how much advertising is around us as predators are constantly looking for ways to sell us on something, sue us, humiliate us on social media, or neglect our social media posts. We have this strange desire to hunt for things that will keep us up to date with everyone else. Making sure we dump buckets of water on our heads and standing still on video with the appropriate hashtags.

Survival in some contexts is associated with adaptation. Question though, what are we adapting to?