[[TheBetween/code and craft|code and craft]] ## the lights in the tunnel We take code/craft as our focal point because this binary directly addresses the legitimacy claim of the current system and offers multiple routes out of it. We’re not alone in this perspective: > Transcending the Code/Craft binary is critical not only for understanding the current algorithmic age but also for governing its evolution.[^3] > Never as relevant and urgent as it is today.[^5] The voices calling for such a rebalancing come from a wide range of fields: - The institutions built to support the algorithmic image of science have collapsed. Decades of code-without-craft has led to stagnation, the ejection of talented scientists from their fields, and public indifference or outright hostility, so that now, sadly, we’re all a bit more blind. At the same time, excellent work by scientists and sociologists of science clearly reveals the mistaken systems (directly connected to lack of craft) and the route to reviving science and even making it better. - Similarly, systems built to support innovation in (high tech) industry have transformed into high walls protecting a handful of old players and ideas, also leading to stagnation, talent drain, and hostility from the public. Craft is getting tapped to reorient the industry but without a clear vision (e.g. engineers blame the degradation of software on losing a shared ethos of craft and OpenAI recently acquired Jony Ive’s design firm for $6.5B). - This stagnation is behind the call for a new Bauhaus. Through craft, Bauhaus gave functionalism to industry, as a compass. "Form follows function" was how to tell if the new mass produced goods and dwellings, that looked nothing like the old ones, were fit for humans. This does not work for information technology because information has no form and no stable function. Worse, industry is now itself organized on functionalism which has a problem with novelty (it assumes a pre-determined goal). This leaves it wide open to unintended consequences, and with short-term revenue the only workable function. Hence the call to repeat the Bauhaus process for the twenty-first century. It was a process, not a miracle, so we can do it again. - The underlying mind/body binary was erased by neuroscience in the past two decades. Attention, cognition, and decision-making are embodied and situated, calling us to attend to the cultivation of head-and-hand skills (craft). Beyond embodiment, the paradigms of the predictive brain framework, allostasis, and the discovery that culture changes our biology without changing the genetic code, make the algorithmic model of cognition untenable. - This is not academic, it informs the calls for code-craft balance from millions of people affected by this disconnect. A clear example is ADHD and the now widely accepted position that mechanistic school and work environments are a poor fit for ADHD people's kinesthetic learning and thinking. This is the same as saying that they do poorly in code-no-craft environments (Sennet's definition of craft describes properly cultivated and socialized hyperfocus). - Mass production, especially of food and technology, has created a host of unmet needs. As people step in to create what they need, they invariably encounter the practices and values of craft. The rehabilitation of craft overlaps with other major movements, from the re-examination of education, labor, and medicine, to regenerative economics, micro-farming, and mending. Most remarkably---and what drove us to launch **the between**---craft has a unique ability to inspire and energize people by speaking for itself. Contrary to the lore of binaries and tribes, a craftsman can recognize the work and values of another across space, time, endeavor, role, position, and industry. The practice of finishing the side that won’t be seen by the user—because time is not always money—is not bound by discipline. In an oversaturated information landscape, in which we’re no longer sure of who or what to trust outside the narrowly familiar, craft has a rare solid quality. It’s one of the few truly universal languages we have. Finally, and crucially from a timing perspective, right now there is a flood of skilled people ready to pull up their sleeves and collaborate to create the badly needed new landscape. The dam broke and washed away the last few pockets they were trying to hold on to. All we need to do is offer a home and a way to get started. [[TheBetween/books and tools, hubs and connections|books and tools, hubs and connections]]