Design for Values
Annual Theme 2024-2025
The drive for autonomous technology spans from workplaces to personal lives, promising breakthroughs in safety, healthcare, and daily conveniences. But this raises a crucial question: What happens to human autonomy? Historically seen as a tool to enhance our freedom, today’s technology risks undermining human control and agency.
How can we (re)align tech development with this value to ensure that technology enriches rather than diminishes our lives? How can we best deal with the risks for human autonomy (like manipulation by AI) without foregoing the opportunities that autonomous technologies offer? What could design for human autonomy mean in practice?
Therefore, in the academic year of 2024-2025 the institute had it’s annual theme on “Design for Human Autonomy”. During this year, these questions have been addressed with a multidisciplinary approach. This has been done by organizing research workshops, the publication a White Paper, engaging students in the student thesis awards, a PhD course and a final conference where everything came together. Have a look below on what has been done this last year.
Photo’s by Annelies van ‘t Hul Fotografie.
Bram Terwogt has written the best thesis on Design for Human Autonomy!
After an extensive review of the jury, Bram Terwogt has won the Student Thesis Awards: Design for Human Autonomy. With his thesis 'The Glass Ceiling Radical Imaginaries of Spatial Justice in Westland’s Horticultrual Landscape', he showed how to combine strong theoretical considerations in real-world design practices. Congratulations!
White Paper: Design for Human Autonomy published!
During the conference on 18 June, the White Paper: Design for Human Autonomy has been published. The editor, Dr.ir. Udo Pesch, has worked the last months on bringing together different disciplines in the white paper. Whilst first more lying a theoretical foundation in the paper, contributing authors elaborated how to design for human autonomy in different application domains as AI, robotics, drones and health.
More about the theme ‘human autonomy’
The rise of autonomous technology
The quest for more autonomous technology has become a focal point of academic inquiry and public discourse. From the workplace, where we envision robots taking over hazardous tasks, to our personal lives, where intelligent AI assistants may soon play a significant role in healthcare and education, the allure of autonomy in technology is undeniable. This fascination extends to contexts as diverse as warfare, where autonomous drones both elicit fear and promise safety, and to our homes, where smart companions, caregivers, and lovers could transform everyday life.
What happens to human autonomy?
Yet, amid the celebration and concerns surrounding autonomous technology, a critical question looms: What happens to human autonomy? Historically, technological progress was seen as a means to enhance human autonomy, as posited by thinkers like Keynes, who believed that technology would free us from mundane labor and expand our ability to lead fulfilling lives. Today, however, the drive for autonomous technology risks overshadowing critical questions about maintaining and enhancing human autonomy.
Questions that need urgent answering
Technology’s unprecedented capabilities for autonomous action and the scale at which manipulation can take place by and through advanced technology demand urgent attention. During this year we will ask hard and crucial questions like:
- How can we ensure that we remain in control of the technology we create?
- How can technology be designed and deployed in ways that support and enhance human autonomy, rather than diminish it?
- Can technology enhance our autonomy or help us transcend our limitations?
- Might there even be scenarios where reducing human autonomy is beneficial in light of our limitations?
- When and why does technology pose a risk of manipulation?
Our theme year
During our theme year, we aim to realign technological development with human autonomy as a key concern. In pursuit of answers, we will consider all forms of technology and take a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from the humanities, social science, and engineering and design.
The theme of “Designing for Human Autonomy” is highly relevant to TU Delft’s mission of making a sustainable impact for a better society, as the university plays a pivotal role in designing technologies that effect our human autonomy. It also aligns with national and EU policymakers’ goals to safeguard human autonomy — a recognized human right. TU Delft has a pivotal role in shaping this discourse, both within its own community and within society at large.
By championing this theme, we can harness our institute’s diverse expertise, foster cross-disciplinary connections, and highlight this crucial issue to a broader audience.
Activities during this theme year
Events on Design for Human Autonomy
Expert group Design for Human Autonomy
Catholijn Jonker
Interactive intelligence, explainable AI, negotiation & deliberation & decision making
Michael Klenk
Design for values, Management of responsible innovation, Responsible risk management, Moral Psychology, Norm Change
Víctor Muñoz Sanz
Future of work, Automated landscapes, Responsible innovation, Conviviality, More-than-human design
Tilman Dingler
Cognitive Systems, Cognitive Bias, Human-Computer Interaction
Serge Paul Hoogendoorn
Traffic and transportation data, privacy, AI, crowd risk management, inclusiveness and equity in transportation
News about the theme year
White Paper: Design for Human Autonomy published
This White Paper brings together a wide arrange of expertise and explores how we can and should design technologies to enhance our own, human, autonomy. Edited by Dr. ir. Udo Pesch. Read the paper here
Best thesis on Design for Human Autonomy by Bram Terwogt from Architecture!
After an extensive review of the jury, Bram Terwogt has won the Student Thesis Awards: Design for Human Autonomy. This was announced during the Conference: Design for Human Autonomy on the 18th of June. With his thesis 'The Glass Ceiling Radical Imaginaries of Spatial Justice in Westland’s [...]
Workshop: The Right Against Manipulation (19 June)
Link to event
Learn more about Design for Human Autonomy?
This page just reports on the special 2024-2025 theme year on Design for Human Autonomy. On our Design for Autonomy overview page you can find more – and the latest – information on the topic.
Autonomy
The quest for more autonomous technology has become a focal point of academic inquiry and public discourse. From the workplace, where we envision robots taking over hazardous tasks, to our personal lives, where intelligent AI assistants may soon play a significant role in healthcare and education, the allure of autonomy in technology is undeniable. This fascination extends to contexts as diverse as warfare, where autonomous drones both elicit fear and promise safety, and to our homes, where smart companions, caregivers, and lovers could transform everyday life.Yet, amid the celebration and concerns surrounding autonomous technology, a critical question looms: What happens to human autonomy? How can we ensure that we remain in control of the technology we create? How can technology be developed and deployed in ways that support and enhance human autonomy, rather than diminish it? Can technology even help us transcend our limitations? Might there even be scenarios where reducing human autonomy is beneficial in light of our limitations? When and why does technology pose a risk of manipulation?
In 2024/2025 human autonomy is the annual theme
of the Delft Design for Values Institute