It is at the border between different techniques or disciplines that most new discoveries are made, most action is inaugurated. It is when two
differing areas of knowledge are forcefully brought in contact with one another that, as we have seen in a previous chapter on bionics, a new
science may come into being. Frederick J. Teggart, the historian, says that 'the great advances of mankind have been due, not to the mere
aggregation, assemblage or acquisition of disparate ideas, but to the emergence of a certain type of mental activity which is set up by the
opposition of different idea systems'.
Acceleration, change, and the acceleration of change itself arise from the meeting of structures or systems along their edges. Intuitively,
young people today have sensed this; their repeated use of 'confrontations' is a symbolic, externalised illustration of this fact.
By its very nature the design team thrives on such confrontations, being itself born of interfaces. The design team is structured to bring many
different disciplines to bear upon the problems that need solving, as well as to search for problems that need to be rethought. Its task is to do
research to find our true needs and to reshape environments, tools, and the way in which we think about them.