Manfred Max-Neef and his collaborators devised the Human Scale Development approach, keeping both nature and respectful relations among human beings in mind. In ‘From The Outside Looking In’ (1982) he writes: “The kind of development in which I believe and which I seek, implies an integral ecological humanism. None of the present systems provides for this, nor has the capacity to correct itself (in order to provide it) without losing the essence of its identity […]. It is no longer a question of adding new variables to old mechanistic models. It is a question of remaking many things from scratch […] of conceiving radically different possibilities […] of understanding that, if it is the role of humans to establish values, then it is the role of nature to establish many of the rules. It is a matter of passing from the pure exploitation of nature and of the poorer people of the world, to a creative and organic integration and interdependence […] of a drastic redistribution of power through the organization of horizontal communal integration […] of passing from destructive giantism to creative smallness”.

The Human Scale Development approach, however, allows complete freedom in the choice of satisfiers and hence does not automatically guarantee unproblematic relationships among individuals, groups, and communities, with future generations or with nature itself. This is true for any approach to human development if, first and foremost, appropriate conceptual and ethical ‘boundary conditions’ are not established. Thus, we need to devise these ethical paths. Ethics, however, is a matter of problems, debates, choices, and responsibilities, not a collection of cookbook recipes for happiness or fairness. So now, and even more so in the AI age, what path are we willing to set for ourselves?