We may be one world in theory, but not yet in practice. Can we reduce the gap through a humane shift in our personal and professional practices? Image | Merco Press
r e c al i b r a t i n g o u r c a u s e
As a professional path, perhaps the theme has been from objects to actions, as I began with attention on products, and now have an intention to design and direct services and systems for people. Taking this tack, I’ve learned to ask, “Why?”, and to ensure the answers have profound meaning for ever more people and for our planet.
Yes . . . physical products are about people, and they provide the means to improve life in so many ways.
And yet, recognizing that we’re all in this world together, we see robust changes are rapidly needed in our personal patterns of consumption, our social systems, and our priorities for resource distribution—including human resources. We need inwardly guided by something greater, as the Dalai Lama aptly remarked,
"I think technology really increased human ability. But technology cannot produce compassion."
Such a shift only appears achievable, though, through greater commercial, public & private, economic, ecological, and political
commitment to the principled and purposeful application of people’s interests, time, and talents towards a more common good.
It is time to look deeper within, and farther afield beyond ourselves to attain and sustain the global village ideal we so often hear about.
Although simmering across a career, this realization has mostly arisen through a decade of residence and relief work in Jordan. As a small nation with limited natural resources, which is subject to large, socio economic, foreign policy impacts, it represents a revealing microcosm of our interconnected world.
Observing as an international designer, then, it becomes apparent that while a privileged, world minority occupies itself with ongoing, technological advances to presumably improve quality of life, the remaining world majority in privation, quietly subsist to live.
So, with all the talk of ‘inclusivity’ these days, whose lives are really being improved?
And where, and how, and why, and at what cost to whom?
How does the irony of a luxury automobile billboard canvas used as a refugee family shelter, affect us?
r e p u r p o s i n g o u r p r o f e s s i o n s
I recall with admiration, Curt Anderson—owner of Compass Product Design who hired me as a recent grad—declining a contract to design a rifle, purely on principle, being averse to instruments of violence.
I believe this is the ethical level of judgement calls that we should all be making. More than one current, world crisis accents the urgency of collectively focusing resources on the root sources of issues where they really matter, rather than attempting to resolve the repercussions later.
For instance, we seem to have all the technology to protect, feed, clothe, house, educate, employ, and promote health for all humanity. And yet, we don’t.
Why not?
Because too many of us still position the problem from an individual & local rather than a communal & global world view. But, by moving from me to we, to attend to the welfare of others outside our own vicinity, we find new possibilities and opportunities for innovation and for humanity.
If our goal is truly to improve quality of life—including all lives—perhaps the need to propagate advanced technology for the few with more isn’t so imperative. How can design, development, and leadership talent instead be better channeled to do more for the many who have less?
At some point, ‘manifest destiny’, ‘exploration inspires’, and ‘technology trickles down’ justifications to pursue digital entertainment, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and space commercialization for the world’s minority, begin to strain moral muster given the facts on the ground for the majority.
Imagine if the trillions of dollars and millions of skilled and caring people involved in those industries were devoted to protecting, feeding, clothing, housing, educating, employing, and promoting health for all people instead.
That would be an inclusive, empowering, principled, and purposeful reality.
Looking forward, then, to reposition human centered design, perhaps my philosophy could be deemed humane centered design to convey the holistic scope of my hopes for humanity moving towards a more a communal mindset and meaningful practices.
Contemplating that prospect, I remind myself and encourage others to engage in the farther reaching venues of humanitarian and ethical economic impact through our personal and professional pursuits.