From Human-Centered Design to Human-Centered Society

1 A Central Tension

DOI: 10.4324/9781003462361-1

Introduction

In Beyond Quick Fixes (Rouse, 2023), I argued that our societal ecosystems should be human-centered. In this chapter, I explain, in detail, what that means. In this book, I articulate an integrated vision and plans for achieving this.

A human-centered society creatively balances investments in sources of innovation, while also governing in a manner that eventually limits exploitation by originators once innovations have proven their value in the marketplace, broadly defined to include both private and public constituencies.

The desired balance requires society to invest in constituencies to be able to create innovations that provide current and future collective benefits, while ...