Participants in the Made in Brunel Pecha Kucha are: David Kester, Chief Executive, The Design Council; Flo Heiss, Founder Dare Digital; Marcus Abbott, BY62x leader, Bentley Motors; Oliver King, co-founder and director, Engine Service Design; Lynda Relph-Knight, editor, Design Week magazine; Warren Hutchinson, Experience Director, LBi; Professor Tony Anson, Brunel University and Anson Medical Ltd; Chenay Nicole Williams, MA Design Strategy student; and Alastair Curtis, Global Head of Design, Nokia.

This is essentially a please for political humanism and to re-appraise the wonder that is the human race.

My talk

In the noughties, we are increasingly negative about humanity. We see humans as a problem, to be fixed or re-engineered. But we should re-appraise our fellow humans. Humans are...

Enquiring

They look into things. Are intrigued. They seek to understand.

Smart

And they are able to understand amazing things. And to explain and discover new things.

Creative

They use their skills to do new, surprising and pleasing things with what we have around us. Do more with less. Challenge the limits of the material world [para].

Logical

They think through complex problems and describe complex solutions.

Lateral-thinking

They work around challenges in surprising ways – a designerly attribute

Insightful

They perceive beyond the obvious, see the depth of challenges, and are wise in giving advice

Problem-solving

They test and experiment

Transformative

And they turn ideas into things that improve the quality of people’s lives

Loving

They care for each other, often for reasons they can’t explain

Selfless

They do things for others, and for humanity – and make sacrifices, even where there is no clear benefit (for instance around sustainability and climate change)

Empathetic

They are able to put themselves in others’ shoes and understand their experiences – a designerly attribute

Trusting

They take others at face value and give the benefit of the doubt, believing that if they trust others they will rise to the challenge

Passionate

They are enthusiastic, driven, committed. Keen to communicate and persuade...

Engaged

... And they engage, get deep into things, immerse themselves, and explore

Aspirational

They aspire to be better than they are, and imagine this for others.

Entrepreneurial

They are able to work out how to put things into action...

Leaderly

And lead people

Inspiring

And inspire them to be better at all these things

Misanthropic

But also our human-ness can lead to misanthropy, which is an expression of some of these these characteristics. But who could be anything but inspired by our fellow humans.