09/13/2026
In “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered” (1973), E. F. Schumacher argued that technology was becoming increasingly “inhuman,” and that humanity may be better off developing technologies with a “human face.”
But in a world where AI technology can actually wear a “human face,” it is imperative that we not mistake these technologies for the kinds of advancements Schumacher promoted.
Schumacher lamented that modern technology “deprived man of the kind of work that he enjoys most, creative, useful work with hands and brains, and given him plenty of work of a fragmented kind, most of which he does not enjoy at all.” Today, these words prove more pertinent than ever as creativity, craftsmanship, and discovery are offloaded to Artificial Intelligence tools while the issues of poverty, unemployment, and inequality grow starker.
A technology with a human face, as envisioned by Schumacher, would not be one which mimicked the human so much as to make our “hands and brains redundant,” but rather helped us to “become far more productive than [we] ever have been before.”
We thus see Schumacher’s vision of a technology with a human face as an unmistakably clear call to action, imploring humanity to steer its technological advancements not toward replacing humans, but rather toward expanding what we can achieve through human ingenuity and creativity.
Read a collection of all our favorite quotes from “Small is Beautiful,” including over fifteen from Chapter 10: Technology with a Human Face, on our website: https://centerforneweconomics.org/envision/legacy/ernst-friedrich-schumacher/small-is-beautiful-quotes/ %2010
