There can be no doubt that, from the moment we roll out of bed to the screeching of our alarm (on a clock, on an iPhone, from a radio) until the moment we close our eyes again (having put down our book, our laptop, our TV remote) we are surrounded by more objects, each begging to be both purchased and manipulated, than the human mind can comfortably reconcile. We are positively inundated. ‘Things’ are supposed to be our tools as a species—ways to interact with and mediate our experiences with nature and each other as instruments to achieve some end. [...]