The Computational Human

TO LIVE OFF the land takes a particular kind of person. I don’t mean living off the land in a temporary, get-back-to-nature-but-thank-goodnessI st i l l -have-my-cel lphonewith-me kind of way. I mean surrendering your very life to the unbridled bounty and brutal indifference of nature, relying on only your wits and perhaps the cooperation of others to grow food, provide shelter, and defend yourself from the randomness of the winds, the rains, the sun, and the beasts. From our privileged lives, we might read about such stories or watch them from the comfort of our modern homes and societies, where the rule of law and the safety net of civilization provide all things and more with relative ease. However, to the man or woman living off the land—as was the case for tens of thousands of years—simply surviving required a very different way of approaching the world.