This episode of "Shots of Awe" is brought to you by Norton.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
So I'm really interested in the space
in which design meets consciousness.
When we're not just building or creating useless things,
but when we're actually co-actively authoring
our mindware.
We build the tools.
And remember, the tools build us.
And there's actually a whole philosophy
behind this idea, known as ontological design.
Anne-Marie Willis wrote an amazing article,
in which she basically stated it like this.
Everything that we design, in turn, designs us back.
So we are being actively designed
by that which we have designed.
Our thoughts shape our spaces and shape our tools.
Our tools and spaces return the favor,
as Steven Johnson tells us.
And so what does this mean?
Well, it means that everything we are
is emerging, is unfolding.
It's being created by the active engagements
between mind and world.
And the feedback loops therein are
creating the linguistic choices, transform, literally transform
our minds from within.
And so again, it shows that there a sort of space
in which what is without, ultimately is within.
That there's a circularity.
That our actions matter.
That the choices we make today for our dwellings,
for our museums, for our institutional systems,
everywhere we place the body-mind has to be designed,
knowing that everything that we are designing
is designing us back.
This is ontological design.
This is why it's important.
And this is why we basically got to keep in mind when we upgrade
everything, from our refrigerators,
to our apartments, to our cars, to our goods and services,
to our smartphones because it's our minds we're
talking about here.
That's ontological design.
[MUSIC PLAYING]