The lure of perfection is ever present, and now it’s more attainable than ever. But quick fix perfection isn’t actually perfection. It’s a filter on reality. That’s what all of this is – the Botox, the AI edits – a filter. If, as a society, we continue defining our humanity by visible perfection, if we redefine what it means to be alive – if we say that our living should be shiny and smoothed out, no live wires on the page or on our face – if we all stop hiking and just take the four wheeler to the top – those of us still on the dirty path are not just left behind, we look like failures.

But even if we successfully erase the existence of our life from our bodies or our work, our humanity still lives inside of us, and what of that?