Comment at the RSA: coming full Circle

The Culture of Economic Humanism for Healthcare Piero Formica, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts Innovation Value Institute, Maynooth University, Ireland There is a desire that detaches itself from the others. It is well-being that is freedom from suffering. Well-being concerns the universe of living species and their cultures, and it encircles three transformations - digital, ecological and behavioural. The design and implementation of One Health (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aww-LTzxAEU) hinge on these three transformations that fall within Economic Humanism, a school of thought that prioritises human welfare and well-being in economic decision-making. Economic Humanism challenges prejudices and beliefs that hide behind the easy mantra of growth. The positive opinion on quantitative change with the 'plus' sign shifts to negative when the disadvantages of growth are ascertained, such as exploitation, inequality, poverty, and destruction of the natural environment, concluding that quality, that is to say, development, is the source from which the pure water flows that is needed for growth to be healthy. One Health is an attempt to voluntarily construct the future using intelligence that recognises how intrinsically linked the economy and the Health of humans, all other living animals and plant species on Earth and "natural objects" such as rivers, lakes, seas, and mountains are. Since the Earth is a closed system, economics must also accord with the physics of closed systems. In this new scenario, the many certainties of the past fall away. In economics, work and enterprise are no longer such well-defined categories as highly reassuring. As early as the 1970s, the German artist Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) argued against a clear separation between work, art and science. According to Beuys, we are all artists whose thinking is the invisible material that values work and reconciles it with nature. In our field of life, we can no longer plough a precise and straightforward furrow of decisions that begins in school, continues in professional activity, and ends in retirement. On the business side, sectorial boundaries are being blurred by transformative enterprises operating at the intersection of advanced technologies and the Health of our planet. Therefore, we must pay close attention to all that makes a difference in making things happen. Because of this complexity, One Health is a construct that unfolds slowly and needs revision following a probabilistic process. One Health, combined with artificial intelligence's transformative applications, should push humans to increase their intelligence to foster the culture of Economic Humanism, a valid 'cultural landing strip' for new technologies, prioritising social justice, environmental sustainability, and ethical behaviour when applied to technology development. For instance, in developing AI systems, Economic Humanism ensures that they are designed to promote well-being rather than just economic growth, whose metrics require an insightful rethinking. By automating the most mundane and time-consuming service activities, staff could move from the low to the high rungs of the cultural and professional ladder. Reliance must be placed on experimentation rather than on experience and predictions. Modes of experimentation with explanations (the 'Whats', 'Whys', and 'Hows') replace or complement the methods of forecasting the directions. Empty spaces must be designed to move companies, products, and services. Qualities of intuition to give free rein to the opportunities hidden in the folds of transformation are at stake. Healthcare workers are invited to take off the shoes of Ptolemaic Knowledgists who search paths within the boundaries of the received knowledge map, limiting processes of discovery or fact-finding by existing experience. Facts are seen and, therefore, are accurate. According to them, imagination is not so precise. On the contrary, it is even more valid because it is profoundly ours. By imagining, we rethink and challenge the facts. That is how it comes into play Homo Solidalis, a concept that represents the intrinsically social and cooperative nature of humans, whose mutual solidarity contrasts with the singularism associated with Homo Oeconomicus, a theoretical model of human behaviour that is perfectly rational and well-established in the ego-system, the empire of the wealthy classes. Overall, Economic Humanism and One Health give a negative sign to activities aimed at consuming superfluous goods and a positive sign to those producing well-being. The inessential is subjective, but it is also influenced by learned cultural norms that dictate the behaviour of consumers whose preferences are reflected in spending patterns. Fundamental to the sustainability of the economic system, education and Health institutions have an enormous responsibility to raise awareness among new generations and a wide range of social groups to identify what is valuable and necessary. The influence of such institutions on markets reduces and could even cancel the power of conditioning exercised by producers on consumers in defining the needs and desires of the latter. If we then consider Economic Humanism and One Health a utopia, then it would be wise to meditate on what Oscar Wilde wrote in The Soul of Man under Socialism (published in 1891 in the socialist periodical "The Fabian Essays in Socialism" ): A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. When Humanity lands there, it looks out and sets sail, seeing a better country. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.