ABSTRACT
Human centered design provides an example for how values and perception inform processes and outcomes. It also demonstrates an understanding of people that, if extended to entire ecosystems, serves as a compelling guide for sustainable design practice. Fortunately, the relationship between perceived similarity and empathy is bidirectional. The more people practice empathy in their engagements with others, the more they experience a sense of connection and familiarity. Rachel Carson, the scientist and author of Silent Spring, is celebrated for her groundbreaking research and writing on the impacts of synthetic pesticides. She was also a devoted aunt to her nephew Roger, with whom she shared a different but equally important kind of research and writing. Recognizing one's ability to empathize as a sign of their relatedness suggests an underlying shift towards a different way of seeing the world: from a collection of separate objects with fixed characteristics to a living system with emergent properties and relationships.
