New philosophy in design: from chaos to connection through observation

Traditional design paradigms reveal their limitations in response to the increasing complexity of the Anthropocene era characterized by environmental challenges, digital hybridization of experience and the crisis of meaning. Existing approaches often prove reactive and incapable of offering truly radical, systemic changes, remaining confined within the very models that gave rise to the problems. This article provides a theoretical review and analysis of four new complementary design theories that represent a genuine paradigm shift: Entropic Design, Sympathetic Design, Design of Non-Obvious Connections (Abductive) and Quantum Design (Design of Superposition). The relevance and novelty of the research lie in the rejection of anthropocentric, static and deterministic design in favour of an approach that embraces chaos, encourages deep empathic connection, employs lateral thinking to redefine problems, and acknowledges the probabilistic nature of digital reality. These theories form a new comprehensive language for describing and designing complex, adaptive systems. The uniqueness of the work is reinforced by the inclusion of the short story “The Geometry of an Erythrocyte” written by one co-author and commented by the other, which serves as a literary model and a practical illustration of the simultaneous manifestation of all four theories in the field of social interactions. The story demonstrates how the proposed design philosophies are not abstractions but are already operative in contemporary reality, describing human behaviour in a state of constant uncertainty. Thus, the article formulates the philosophical foundations, key principles, potential applications, and points of synthesis for the proposed theories, arguing for the necessity of transitioning design from the role of a “decorator” to that of a mediator of complexity.