Man generates, algorithms produce
Human nature is completely different compared to all other forms of life and, even more so, to machines and algorithms.
It is difficult to define what that quid of humanity is that distinguishes us from what’s not human but it is easy to see its effects in many areas.
If machines and algorithms can only reproduce themselves, propagating endless and identical copies, one of Man’s fundamental characteristics is the generative dimension: the ability to start a new project, to create a new life such as a daughter or a son who, with time, will be completely independent subjects from their parents.
These characteristics of freedom and vitality are at the base of what CfGC refers to as “Human Touch,” the most essential aspects of what we commonly consider as life: life as a non-linear process, the freedom to diverge or to oppose a system in order to transform it depending on one’s creativity and intended project.
For the CfGC, Human Touch is intelligence nourished by tradition, manual skill, wide-reaching heritage of knowledge and techniques rooted in a distant past that characterizes and unites members of a specific community.
In this sense, Human Touch is what defines the relationships–in various areas, from agriculture to craftsmanship–between people and, in turn, the identity of a territory, its uniqueness and non-reproducibility, its development and, ultimately, its added value.
Communication has to legitimize needs and foster innovation
Innovation is primarily a social process that involves finding solutions to the needs and demands of people.These needs can be conscious or unconscious and can remain hidden under the surface of individual and collective awareness, even for long periods of time, to then emerge in a disruptive, seemingly unpredictable way that can sometimes be brutal.
Some examples of this apparent unpredictability include the current crises among intermediate and representative bodies and the populist wave sweeping world politics. They are only apparently unpredictable because, in reality, they are consequences of a lack of attention, a lack of legitimization of the difficulties and the needs for knowledge and recognition that characterize human nature.
The generative paradigm, which emphasizes the centrality of Man and enhances Human Touch in all aspects of communication and productivity, brings to the surface and legitimizes these needs by establishing connections and aggregating the skills necessary to respond to them, before they become critical enough to jeopardize the resilience of the reference community.
Over the years, there have been numerous cases in which generative communication has made it possible to foresee and respond to situations, in companies, organizations and istitutions, that would have (only) apparently led to unpredictable crises had they not been steered differently.
Rewrite the organization: a living system centered on people
The systems around us tend to mechanize our behavior and the choices we make every day. Technology has always transformed human life and the advent of a digital world has reinforced this same model of mechanical communication, to the detriment of the freedom and creativity of individuals and organizations. The model that shapes social organization and the development of machines, automatisms and automation is, in fact, the result of precise political choices.
The CfGC is convinced that individuals must render automation a tool able to strengthen their own divergences. Precisely for this reason, one of the activities of the CfGC has been to investigate the role of those who design ICTs and who preside over the systems and automation processes (technological, social, economic) within a community, an organization or a company.
Indeed, research has the task of analyzing and understanding this model and ensuring that it meets the real political, social and economic needs of citizens, businesses, and institutions. A model for the design of new technologies that, finally, also encompasses Human Touch places man at the center of ICT planning.
People at the center of the system
Placing the empowerment of subjects at the center of any socio-economic and cultural dynamic must be considered a priority. This comes from the perspective that subjects–for example, producers–are not passive listeners with regard to the needs of the socio-economic reality, often erroneously seen as a single comprehensive condition to be indulged according to the laws of the market. On the contrary, producers must put themselves in an active, entrepreneurial role to propose innovation able to transform–perhaps even radically–the culture of need and use of their products.
The CfGC aims to offer its technical and scientific contribution in such a way that the social and economic subjects who request the Center’s collaboration and consultation can develop their full potential in this sense, moving toward system innovation.
In this regard, the CfGC actively works to build or rebuild communities of knowledge, experience, and practice starting from their active involvement in human resources, thus giving new life to an enterprise, organization, institution, association, or agency. The generative communication paradigm sets its sights on giving value to single subjects in a common project so that they feel as if the project belongs to them, and putting their needs, requirements, knowledge, and communities back at the center of new social models.