Daniel Payne
We live in an age of extraordinary comfort and unprecedented anxiety, of global connection and profound isolation, of technological marvels and ecological collapse. Despite having more conveniences, entertainment, and material abundance than any generation in human history, rates of depression, chronic disease, and social fragmentation continue to rise. Something fundamental has gone wrong with how we live, but the solutions offered-more technology, more efficiency, more growth-seem only to deepen our predicament.This book explores a possibility that few dare to consider: that the very systems we’ve built to improve human life are systematically undermining the biological, psychological, and spiritual foundations that make us human. Over the past two centuries, we have created an artificial civilization that operates according to mechanical rather than natural principles, and our bodies, minds, and communities are rebelling against conditions for which we were never designed.The following pages trace how we departed from ways of living that sustained our ancestors for millennia, examine the hidden costs of our artificial world, and explore possibilities for reconnecting with the natural patterns that still govern human flourishing. This is not a call to abandon all modern innovations, but an invitation to distinguish between technologies that enhance our humanity and those that diminish it.The goal is not to provide easy answers but to ask better questions about what it means to live well as human beings on Earth in the twenty-first century.
