Process Is What Makes Us Human

Process Is What Makes Us Human

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where all this technology is leading us.

What’s interesting is that I genuinely love this stuff. I love cameras, electric vehicles, and the incredible tools we now have access to. Even artificial intelligence fascinates me, though I admit I’m already a little tired of hearing about it everywhere I turn.

I’ve often thought I was born at the right time in history for someone like me. My love of the natural world and my fascination with technology somehow seem to coexist quite naturally.

I used to drive a 1963 Studebaker Lark with a three-on-the-tree manual transmission, which I bought for $100. I had an absolute blast driving that old car; it was a tank. These days, I find myself just as fascinated by the latest EV technology. For whatever reason, both worlds have always made sense to me.

Photography has evolved alongside all of this as well. I spent years shooting film, where every frame cost money and waiting was simply part of the process. Today, I capture all my images with a digital camera and process them on a computer far more powerful than anything I could have imagined when I first picked up a camera.

Still, I can’t help thinking about what we may be gaining… and what we may quietly be giving up.

Maybe this all started while I was planting wildflowers recently. I found myself thinking about how satisfying simple, physical things still are.

They take time.

You kneel. Dig the hole. Set the plant in the earth. Gently loosen the roots. Firm the soil back into place. Water it. Then wait.

There’s a process involved.

Planting wildflowers in my garden.

And I keep coming back to this thought:

Process is what makes us human.

When I look back on the parts of life that have shaped me most, very few of them came easily. Photography didn’t. Gardening certainly didn’t. Relationships don’t either. Learning who you are doesn’t happen overnight.

The process itself changes us.

I sometimes wonder whether we are slowly moving toward a world where fewer and fewer things are required of us, and more and more are optimized, immediate, and frictionless. Maybe some of that will improve our lives in important ways.

But I do wonder about a life where too much is removed.

What happens if everything is provided for us? Would that make us happier or more fulfilled? I honestly don’t know.

Along the way, many schools drifted away from teaching the trades, as if higher education were the only meaningful path. But not everyone is meant to spend a life behind a desk or a screen. Some people are builders, mechanics, carpenters, electricians, gardeners, artists, and makers of all kinds.

There is dignity in learning to make and repair things with our minds and hands.

And maybe that’s part of what I keep circling back to. Not whether technology is good or bad, but whether we remain connected to the parts of life that actually make us feel human.

Making things.
Learning slowly.
Paying attention.
Working with our hands.
Being present enough to fully participate in our own lives.

I don’t have a grand conclusion here. These are simply thoughts that have been on my mind lately.

But I suspect I’m not alone in trying to make sense of all of this.