Stuff

SPECIAL  REPORT

Humans are materialistic by nature, but we have  an odd relationship  with the things we own. Possessions enrich our lives but they also come at a cost, both environmental and psychological. Over the next 10 pages,  we take stock of our ambivalent relationship with material goods,  size up the things that a modern human actually needs, consider the ways possessions define us  and ponder the future of ownership. But first, we look back at the evolution of our instinct for stuff.