We created societies, because we need to eat, reproduce, survive, without reverting to base violence. We created medicine, technology to improve our quality of life and reduce the chances that biological evolutionary pressure destroys us. The black plague came close to killing 60% of the European population. It is now eradicated.

What is the next step in our evolution as a species? Right now the biggest danger to the survival of humankind is... humankind itself. If we are to survive, not for a hundred years, but for a hundred thousand years into the future, we must learn how to cooperate without annihilating each other in the process.

Violence isn't a vice that could be eliminated if only people had more virtue. It serves a practical function. It's the ultimate dispute resolution mechanism for people who either have too little in common or too much at stake to resolve their issues in any other way. Prosperity, abundance, and homogeneity makes it less necessary over time, but so long as conflict is possible between people, violence will be the final resort for resolving it.

Personally, yes. Taking time out to eat so I don't die takes me away from other things I was enjoying doing.

I enjoy the taste of many foods, but not as much as I was enjoying the thing I was likely doing before it.

Don't get me wrong, I love eating as well as cooking, but I have to agree that a stupid amount of time is spent on doing those things. If I could switch to a solution where I take a pill and it provides my body with all possible nutrition then I would in an instant.

He would spend three or four hours in the kitchen each night and sometimes all day on Saturdays and Sundays.

It baffled me to no end to spend that much time just to sate hunger.

Clearly he wasn't trying to sate hunger. Cooking is as much of a hobby as hacking or being a "maker." Plus eating food is way more than just satiating hunger. I don't like cooking but I loving eating and drinking.