### Record Type:: [[Claims]] ValueofCraft:: [[Psychological value of craft]] [[Economic value of craft]] [[Disaster recovery value of craft]] ### Note Artificial intelligence now performs many tasks once reserved for human skill and judgement, including writing, coding, image-making and design. When machines can produce text and images at the click of a button, people can feel that their own capacities are redundant. Craft offers a way of meeting this disruption rather than being flattened by it. **Agency.** Making something by hand restores a direct relationship between intention, effort and outcome. The maker decides, acts and sees the result. In a world increasingly saturated with synthetic output, craft affirms authorship and discernment, and offers a tangible practice to fall back on when digital work feels abstract and interchangeable. **Employment.** As automation and AI displace workers, craft remains an intrinsically human occupation. Its labour intensity, usually seen as inefficiency, becomes a virtue when meaningful work is scarce (see [[Claim - Craft provides employment at a time of de-growth]]). **Connection.** Screen-based life can leave us isolated from the physical world and from each other. Working with materials re-grounds us, and making alongside others builds trust and belonging (see [[Claim - It is reassuring to touch base with the material world]]). **Achievement and recognition.** Mastering a material skill provides a sense of accomplishment that is hard to gain from prompting a machine. As AI-generated content becomes ubiquitous, the evident human hand gains value, much as the handmade was revalued in response to industrialisation (see [[Claim - Craft improves well-being]]). **Resilience.** Complex technological systems are vulnerable to disruption, whether through infrastructure failure, conflict or environmental breakdown. Hand skills provide a backup that does not depend on electricity or networks. The revival of home sewing to meet the demand for masks early in the COVID pandemic shows how craft skills are called on when systems fail. Craft also offers a vocabulary for thinking through AI's implications. Developers reach for weaving and woodworking as analogies when debating code quality, accountability and the loss of "feel" for a medium, much as the Luddites' anxieties about mechanised looms resurface in today's arguments over vibe-coding. ### References %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: start ```dataview list summary from [[Claim - Craft helps us cope with the impact of artificial intelligence]] where contains(file.path,"Warp") ``` %% - [[Warp/AI Will Make Human Art More Valuable.md|AI Will Make Human Art More Valuable]]: The William Morris effect will see increased value in human made. - [[Warp/Inside Charleston's Craft Renaissance Young Artisans Are Defying AI.md|Inside Charleston's Craft Renaissance Young Artisans Are Defying AI]]: American College of the Building Arts preserves building arts - [[Warp/Talks/ChatGPT - A craft perspective.md|ChatGPT - A craft perspective]]: \- - [[Warp/Talks/Vibe-coding versus artisanal programing - AI from a craft perspective.md|Vibe-coding versus artisanal programing - AI from a craft perspective]]: Craft offers a way of thinking critically about the increasing reliance on AI in software programming. - [[Warp/Why Craft Matters Now More Than Ever.md|Why Craft Matters Now More Than Ever]]: Making things with your hands helps you feel alive and connected to yourself. - [[Warp/Michaels 2026 Creativity Trend Report.md|Michaels 2026 Creativity Trend Report]]: A major US craft retailer reports a surge in analogue hobbies as consumers seek to reclaim their identity in an automated world. - [[Warp/20-Somethings Are Taking Up Grandma's Favorite Hobbies.md|20-Somethings Are Taking Up Grandma's Favorite Hobbies]]: A Mintel survey found 71% of US adults did a craft project in 2024, with Gen Z the most engaged as young people trade doomscrolling for handwork. - [[Warp/The Knowledge - How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch.md|The Knowledge - How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch]]: A thought experiment on rebuilding civilisation after collapse shows how dependent we have become on complex systems and how few of us retain basic practical skills. - [[Warp/Your Brain on ChatGPT - Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.md|Your Brain on ChatGPT - Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task]]: An EEG study found that writing with ChatGPT reduced brain connectivity, recall and sense of ownership compared with writing unaided. Effortful making, whether a text or an object, sustains a sense of authorship that outsourcing erodes %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: end %%