Why these 3?

Logic and "scientific evidence" is highly prized in modern society whether we are conscious of it or not. But logically speaking, everything can be explained in a rational manner, yet society is still facing a myriad of social issues that Science, technology, and our structural advancements alone cannot resolve. At some point (now rather than later), we ought to realise that emergent technology is ~~probably~~ not going to be the magic bullet that would solve for underlying social behaviour problems. They can prolong the window for rectification, but the future of society depends on individuals and collective Human sensibilities.

Perhaps it is obvious that what the hard sciences cannot explain is human relationships, or even some fundamental questions related to the diversity Human being and our dynamic nature. Why do some people seem to require more energy from food? Caloric numbers are but simply arbitrary, despite that it offers one way to analyse energy. To live a life based on numbers is arguably shallow because if we take a look at Traditional Medicine for instance, deeper wisdom about the Human system and its workings is beyond what science has been able to quantify (not to say that we shouldn't try). Each method that we have to understand the Human system at our disposal are parts of whole complex picture, and that is all the more reason that we should strive to integrate rather than dismiss multiple perspectives. In a way, I believe that modern society is not Myopic because of too much screen exposure. But rather, we have become too biased in what we perceive to be valuable, to the extent that it has compromised the Human's ability to see a more complete picture and to be able to discern illusion from experience.

So what?

To counteract the biases of rationalisation, we ought to connect with our Human nature and innate senses. There is much reason to do so because Nature is the most sensible and reliable system out there - its self-regulation mechanisms are far more complex than we could imagine. In the earlier years of Industrial Design, biophilic design and biomimicry were core concepts that helped us to evolve our systems and collective potential to produce and provide increased benefits to society. But somehow, those principles of connectivity with nature have reduced to focus on operational efficiency. The Design practice has evolved to idolise Design Thinking and Interface Design for customer satisfaction. But how might we design for real satisfaction and not gratification if we are growing increasingly disconnected from our own Nature? This subject is close to my heart as a Designer. To me, Design is so much more than simply justifying where to place a button on a screen to be noticed. Sure, I could do that, but more importantly, the reason I can do that is because of the sensibilities and sensitivities that I have towards human behaviour and how our internal systems work. Not by calculating the best possible way to optimise a screen.

I would argue that Design started off to balance the Humanness required of our mechanical system to make things more usable, to make life more enjoyable. This premise itself gives reason that Science & Sensibilities are an inseparable pair when it comes to Human-centred design. Therefore, the way forward is about how we ought to marry structure and sense for human good, lest we forget that we are each human too, and that we will eventually face the consequences of the way we have designed our systems. We all have skin in the game. At this point, I believe Spirit comes quite naturally into the picture. 'Spirit' embodies the notions of union and unification. If we know and we truly believe that we are one and the same despite our differences, would we create and do the things we do? And how have communities of the past been able to self organise and live in harmony? I think it is because of a shared Spirit. In Singapore, for example, we term it the 'kampung spirit'. This sense of communal spirit is all the more important in a society where we can easily choose to dissociate and disconnect from behind the walls of a screen.

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