A New Kind of Wholeness
Check out the light in my office right now 🤩 .
When the light comes through the window like this, the sun’s rays hit different surfaces and edges in ways that seem different to me every time. Of course, the sun follows a consistent path throughout the year, and my house isn’t moving. But my noticing is not nearly so consistent.
That reminds that all systems — natural and artificial — operate through patterns of connection and influence. Our job as designers isn’t just to use AI effectively, but to understand how it fits into the larger patterns of human creativity and purpose. That’s a good thing — designers are good observers. No matter what the tech, we notice patterns we notice the lack of them.
So in the midst of what is likely a major, AI-driven transition for us all, it’s worth considering that the future of design won’t be about human versus machine, but about understanding the pattern language that emerges when both intelligences work together in a system.
As Christopher Alexander and his cohort might have said, it will be about creating a new kind of wholeness — one that honors both the computational power of AI and the nuanced wisdom of human experience.
Written by Christopher Butler on
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