Drivers of Innovation at Human Scale
November 18th 2008 13:38
Where should innovation at human scale get its impetus from? When we innovate to improve the quality of life of society where should we start? I argue that innovators of yesteryear made dramatic innovations because they targeted direct, immediate, universal human needs. My discussion will therefore dwell largely on innovation that addresses human needs not wants (but then again where do we draw the line?). For identification of what these needs are, I will borrow from the behavioural guru, Abraham Maslow of the Hierarchy of Human Needs fame. Over time I will argue and speculate about innovation at human scale as it applies to the different layers of human needs.
Beginning at the basic level of needs; food and shelter, we should ask ourselves why despite apparent progress in innovation, there is so little progress on elimination of hunger and homelessness. Street children abound in every country of the world. Note that I am not talking about control of hunger, reduction of hunger, alleviation of hunger but total elimination. I am not talking about Millennium Development Goal No.1 which says, in part, “Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.” With the amount of brain power in the world today why are we taking such a low aim; adopting such a cheap ideal? Why are we not innovating hunger completely out of human lives everywhere? I argue that it is because not enough modern innovation is at human scale. There isn’t enough nurturing and support of innovators following the footsteps of the leading lights like Richard Buckminster Fuller.
The Millennium Development Goal number 7, in part, says “Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020”. If we look at innovation through the eyes of a skeletal little girl in the ghettos of a poor neighborhood what is it that she would like us to innovate about? Does it matter to her that the Space Shuttle is docked at the International Space Station today? Does it matter to her that the latest sports car has an ultra-low drag co-efficient reducing friction to zero? The only friction she wants to know about is that of a morsel of food going down her throat.
So what is my parting shot in this snippet? It is that the world’s efforts should be weighted towards innovation at human scale and driven by human needs, starting at the bottom of the needs chain.
Beginning at the basic level of needs; food and shelter, we should ask ourselves why despite apparent progress in innovation, there is so little progress on elimination of hunger and homelessness. Street children abound in every country of the world. Note that I am not talking about control of hunger, reduction of hunger, alleviation of hunger but total elimination. I am not talking about Millennium Development Goal No.1 which says, in part, “Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.” With the amount of brain power in the world today why are we taking such a low aim; adopting such a cheap ideal? Why are we not innovating hunger completely out of human lives everywhere? I argue that it is because not enough modern innovation is at human scale. There isn’t enough nurturing and support of innovators following the footsteps of the leading lights like Richard Buckminster Fuller.
The Millennium Development Goal number 7, in part, says “Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020”. If we look at innovation through the eyes of a skeletal little girl in the ghettos of a poor neighborhood what is it that she would like us to innovate about? Does it matter to her that the Space Shuttle is docked at the International Space Station today? Does it matter to her that the latest sports car has an ultra-low drag co-efficient reducing friction to zero? The only friction she wants to know about is that of a morsel of food going down her throat.
So what is my parting shot in this snippet? It is that the world’s efforts should be weighted towards innovation at human scale and driven by human needs, starting at the bottom of the needs chain.
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