We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Ludwig Mies Van Der RoheRead
Technology is far more than a method, it is a world in itself. As a method, it is superior in almost every respect. But only where it is left to itself, as in gigantic structures of engineering, there technology reveals its true nature.
Interpretation
Technology transcends mere methods, embodying a complex world when left unimpeded.
This quote by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe emphasizes that technology is not just a tool or method, but a vast realm that holds its true essence in its unrestrained form. In massive engineering marvels, it showcases its inherent nature, suggesting that when technology is allowed to flourish independently, it reveals its full potential and beauty.
In practice
During a technology conference, one could emphasize Mies Van Der Rohe's view on the essence of technology.
We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and human beings together in a higher unity.
Architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity lies in the realm of the significance.
The demands of the time for objectivity and functionality must be fulfilled. If that clearly happens, then the buildings of our day will convey the greatness of which the age is capable, and only a fool will maintain that they lack it.
I think that an industrial process is not like a rubber stamp. Everything has to be put together and, as such, should have its own expression.
Reinforced concrete buildings are by nature skeletal buildings. No noodles nor armoured turrets. A construction of girders that carry the weight, and walls that carry no weight. That is to say, buildings consisting of skin and bones.
Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.
There's an assumption that women don't start companies that earn more than X amount of dollars, or that have more than X amount of users, and Bumble is now really growing into one of the main players if you look at all the mainstream social-media platforms.
Previously, we might use machine learning in a few sub-components of a system. Now we actually use machine learning to replace entire sets of systems, rather than trying to make a better machine learning model for each of the pieces.
I believe quite simply that the small company of the future will be as much a research organization as it is a manufacturing company.
The problem with the Internet is that it gives you everything - reliable material and crazy material. So the problem becomes, how do you discriminate?
The critical thing in developing software is not the program, it's the design. It is translating understanding of user needs into something that can be realized as a computer program.
When I was a student at MIT, we all shared one computer and it took up a whole building. The computer in your cell phone today is a million times cheaper and a thousand times more powerful. What now fits in your pocket 25 years from now will fit into a blood cell and will again be millions of times more cost effective.
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