Generative design techniques (‘Digital canopy: high-end computation/low-tech construction’ arq 6/3, pp230–245) tend to intrigue and slightlyscare (arq 6/4, pp293–294 – letter from Sam Price) at the sametime. It is reassuring to know that computers will only be as smart as we can program them.We can even control if they learn and how they learn. Design capabilities using generativemethods agreeably are a product of both how smart we make the generative algorithms and howintelligently designers can make use of them. A human designer alone probably would not havecome up with the canopy design built and a computer alone could not have.