Evolution wants us to be digital nomads

We humans, and our ancestors, have been around for millions of years. For most of that time – until as recently as 10,000 years ago – we lived nomadic lives as hunter-gatherers. The onset of agriculture essentially signaled the beginning of the end for that lifestyle, and we began inhabiting more stationary settlements.

From that point until now, humans have forged entire civilizations that revolve around a concept of building structures that will stay standing for generations – something that was completely foreign to our nomadic ancestors. Villages, towns, and cities grew to be the centres of human life and interaction, and we left our hunter-gatherer ways far behind us. 

Recently, though, it seems that many people have become disenchanted with this way of life. People are seeking more from their existence than the traditionalized norms of society. We are finding ourselves looking to other places, and wondering what life is like elsewhere. Now, instead of just dreaming about the adventures that await, many of us are reclaiming our lost nomadic heritage, and we are once again on the move.

One of the many benefits of taking to the open road, whether it be in an RV, a tiny home, or just in the family car, is that sense of freedom and release from the anchor of civilization. We have the opportunity to see the world, and experience places that we’d never see if we stayed in our comfortable houses, in our comfortable communities.

Up until relatively recently, the way that our business and social worlds were structured dictated this need to stay in one place. Personal frontiers were only challenged by those who stepped outside the socially accepted norms of life, work, and family. With the invention and widespread uptake of mobile technologies, though, that preordained notion of community, fostered over the last 10,000 years, has been shattered, and the way of the digital nomad was born!

Now, thanks to the aforementioned tech, we can get out on the road, and work almost anywhere in the world (providing the wi-fi works there!). As long as the work is primarily digital in nature, we can work in a different location every day, making the whole world our office.

It helps, too, that more and more advanced technologies are becoming available at prices that are geared towards consumers, instead of just big business. This gives people from all walks of life the chance to break the chains, and take themselves, and their businesses, away from the structured centres of society and into their own chosen places in the world. Remote servers, bluetooth, 3D printing – all of these things are making mobile business a reality that can be achieved by everybody.

Admittedly, the civilizations that we’ve built and the more sedentary ways of life that we’ve founded are likely to stay as the norm, at least for the foreseeable future. If your prehistoric DNA is calling out to you, though, pushing you to reclaim your nomadic roots, don’t ignore it! Build the digitally nomadic life that you yearn for, and make the whole world your home.