Human Design: Building Computation around Human Networks

Computer technology has mostly focused either on the isolated individual, or has treated the person as a clueless extra wandering in a computer-controlled environment. Researchers seem to have forgotten that people are social animals, and that the quality of their lives is defined by their roles in human organizations. Instead of inventing technology for the individual as an isolated entity, why not invent systems that support people's organizational roles? Or even invent new types of organizations? My colleagues and I are inventing technology that can potentially produce organizations that are more creative and efficient, and that better support the individual. At the personal scale to support family networks, at the organizational scale to support innovation, and at the national scale to support economic growth in developing nations, we are finding that shaping computation to support social networks can produce great rewards.