{"id":7955,"date":"2026-07-22T09:14:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\/?p=7955"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:40:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T07:40:55","slug":"humus-five-humans-and-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\/en\/humus-five-humans-and-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"humus\u00ae five &#8211; Humans and machines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\u201c<em>Why does this magnificent applied science which saves effort and makes life easier bring us so little happiness?\u201d<\/em> The question appeared on February 17, 1931, in <em>The New York Times<\/em><sup>[1]<\/sup>: these were <strong>the words Albert Einstein had addressed the previous day to the students of the California Institute of Technology<\/strong>. <em>\u201cThe simple answer runs: because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it. In war it serves that we may poison and mutilate each other. In peace it has made our lives hurried and uncertain (\u2026) it has made men into slaves of machinery (\u2026) <strong>Concern for the man himself and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavours<\/strong>; concern for the great unsolved problems of the organization of labor and the distribution of goods in order that <strong>the creations of our mind shall be a blessing and not a curse to mankind<\/strong>. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.\u201d <\/em>A warning that feels strikingly contemporary, even almost a century after it was spoken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>True to its constructive spirit, <strong>humus<\/strong><strong>\u00ae<\/strong><strong> presents in this issue researchers, creatives, and organizations that have chosen the path of care indicated by Einstein<\/strong>: stories and practices that show, in pragmatic terms, how design and architecture \u2013 and, more speculatively, art \u2013 can help define the measure by which we relate to technology and direct it toward the common good. This is the image evoked by the little girl on our cover, guiding a very light paper airplane made from a drawing sheet, while an equally light robot helps it take flight. The question of how to measure technological progress does not belong only to our time, as demonstrated by the journey of digital artist Rebecca Allen, whose first digital animations date back to the 1970s; yet Allen, whom MEET in Milan is celebrating with a retrospective, revealed to humus\u00ae that, unlike in past decades, when ideas anticipated technology, \u201c<strong><em>today transformations follow one another at such a rapid pace that they leave us very little time to reflect on their psychological, social, and spiritual consequences<\/em><\/strong>\u201d. It is therefore more urgent than ever that research should not merely feed technological progress, but should investigate its repercussions and ethically define its objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an article comparing architects Riccardo Piazzai, project manager at BIG \u2013 Bjarke Ingels Group, and Giovanni Sanna, founder of a-fact architecture, it emerges that the use of artificial intelligence in architectural practice is not simply a shortcut, but an extension of the designer\u2019s cognitive and organizational abilities. Not only that: for designer and artist Filippo Nassetti, <strong>technology can help us extend imagination as well, and find a way out of the impasses generated by social and economic models that are no longer sustainable<\/strong>: \u201c<em>If we continue to imagine the future according to the same paradigms that helped generate the current crises, we risk obtaining technically better but culturally identical results<\/em>\u201d, he revealed to humus\u00ae. As we read through the articles in this issue, multiple \u2013 and not always linear \u2013 paths emerge, exploring the impacts and uses of technology, such as the method identified by Dutch ceramicist Vera van der Burg, who, in her artistic practice, treats AI not as a tool but as an imperfect and reflective material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is therefore possible \u2013 and indeed desirable \u2013 to \u201c<strong><em>imagine new systems of values or transform existing ones<\/em><\/strong>\u201d, as the Japanese art collective teamLab states in the interview in which it discusses its research. The group, made up of engineers, mathematicians, architects, and artists, creates spectacular interactive installations that transport visitors into poetic and enchanted dimensions: \u201c<strong><em>Art serves to expand perception<\/em><\/strong>\u201d, they argue, \u201c<em>in thirty or fifty years, thanks to these <strong>positive expansions of the idea of beauty<\/strong>, people may behave in ways that today, with our limited knowledge, we are not yet able to understand<\/em>\u201d. This is also the hope of humus\u00ae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\"><sup>[1]<\/sup> Albert Einstein, Speech to students at the California Institute of Technology, in \u201cEinstein sees lack in applying science\u201d, <em>The New York Times<\/em>, February 17, 1931.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhy does this magnificent applied science which saves effort and makes life easier bring us so little happiness?\u201d The question appeared on February 17, 1931, in The New York Times[1]: these were the words Albert Einstein had addressed the previous day to the students of the California Institute of Technology. \u201cThe simple answer runs: because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it\u2026&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[99,97,89],"class_list":["post-7955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover","tag-humansandmachines","tag-humusfive","tag-lamemoriadellecitta"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>humus\u00ae five - Humans and machines - Humus<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\/en\/humus-five-humans-and-machines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"humus\u00ae five - Humans and machines - Humus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cWhy does this magnificent applied science which saves effort and makes life easier bring us so little happiness?\u201d The question appeared on February 17, 1931, in The New York Times[1]: these were the words Albert Einstein had addressed the previous day to the students of the California Institute of Technology. \u201cThe simple answer runs: because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it\u2026&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\/en\/humus-five-humans-and-machines\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Humus\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-22T07:14:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-22T07:40:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Iris_Uomini_e_Macchine-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lorenzo Vaccari\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lorenzo Vaccari\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\\\/en\\\/humus-five-humans-and-machines\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\\\/en\\\/humus-five-humans-and-machines\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lorenzo Vaccari\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.humus-digitalmag.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/aa1853d4efee55250f1858223b4ec00d\"},\"headline\":\"humus\u00ae five &#8211; 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