Imagination Age
The Imagination Age is a theorized period following the Information Age where creativity and imagination become the primary engines of economic value (in contrast, the main activities of the Information Age were analysis and rational thought).[1][2] It has been proposed that new technologies like virtual reality and user created content will change the way humans interact with each other and create economic and social structures. The AI boom of the 2020s has increased the ubiquity of information.[further explanation needed] The relevant neologism is the Fourth Industrial Revolution, popularized in 2016 based on transformative developments shifting the nature of industrial capitalism. One conception is that the rise of an immersive virtual reality (the metaverse or the cyberspace) will raise the value of "imagination work" done by designers, artists, et cetera, over rational thinking as a foundation of culture and economics. Origins of the termThe terms Imagination Age as well as Age of Imagination were first introduced in an essay by designer and writer Charlie Magee in 1993. His essay,[3] "The Age of Imagination: Coming Soon to a Civilization Near You" proposes the idea that the best way to assess the evolution of human civilization is through the lens of communication.
Imagination Age, as a philosophical tenet heralding a new wave of cultural and economic innovation, appears to have been first introduced by artist, writer and cultural critic Rita J. King in November 2007[citation needed] essay for the British Council entitled, "The Emergence of a New Global Culture in the Imagination Age",[4] where she began using the phrase, "Toward a New Global Culture and Economy in the Imagination Age":
King further refined the development of her thinking in a 2008 Paris essay entitled, "Our Vision for Sustainable Culture in the Imagination Age"[5] in which she states,
King has expanded her interpretation of the Imagination Age concept through speeches at the O'Reilly Media, TED, Cusp, and Business Innovation Factory conferences.[6][7][8][9] The term Imagination Age was subsequently popularized in techno-cultural discourse by other writers, futurists and technologists, who attributed the term to King, including Jason Silva.[10][11] Earlier, one-time, references to the Imagination Age can be found attributed to Carl W. Olson in his 2001 book "The Boss is Dead...: Leadership Breakthroughs for the Imagination Age,[12] and virtual worlds developer Howard Stearns in 2005.[13][14] Previous agesThe ideas of the Imagination Age depend in large part upon an idea of progress through history because of technology, notably outlined by Karl Marx. That cultural progress has been categorized into a number of major stages of development. According to this idea civilization has progressed through the following ages, or epochs:
Following this is a new paradigm created by virtual technology, high speed internet, massive data storage, and other technologies. This new paradigm, the argument goes, will create a new kind of global culture and economy called the Imagination Age. The next and current age might have started recently:
Economic rise of imaginationThe Imagination Age includes a society and culture dominated by the imagination economy. The idea relies on a key Marxist concept that culture is a superstructure fully conditioned by the economic substructure. According to Marxist thinking certain kinds of culture and art were made possible by the adoption of farming technology. Then with the rise of industry new forms of political organization (democracy, militarism, fascism, communism) were made possible along with new forms of culture (mass media, news papers, films). These resulted in people changing. In the case of industrialization people were trained to become more literate, to follow time routines, to live in urban communities. The concept of the Imagination Age extends this to a new order emerging presently. An imagination economy is defined by some thinkers as an economy where intuitive and creative thinking create economic value, after logical and rational thinking has been outsourced to other economies.[15] Michael Cox Chief Economist at Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas argues that economic trends show a shift away from information sector employment and job growth towards creative jobs. Jobs in publishing, he has pointed out are declining while jobs for designers, architects, actors & directors, software engineers and photographers are all growing. This shift in job creation is a sign of the beginning of the Imagination Age.[citation needed] The 21st century has seen a growth in games and interactive media jobs.[16] Cox argues that the skills can be viewed as a "hierarchy of human talents",[17] with raw physical effort as the lowest form of value creation, above this skilled labor and information entry to creative reasoning and emotional intelligence. Each layer provides more value creation than the skills below it, and the outcome of globalization and automation is that labor is made available for higher level skills that create more value. Presently these skills tend to be around imagination, social and emotional intelligence. TechnologyKey to the idea that imagination is becoming the key commodity of our time is a confidence that virtual reality technology like Oculus Rift and HoloLens will emerge to take much of the place of the current text-and-graphic dominated internet. This will provide a 3D internet where imagination and creativity (over information and search) will be key to creating user experience and value. The concept is not limited to just virtual reality. Charlie Magee states that the technology that will develop during the Imagination Age would include:
In The Singularity is Near, Raymond Kurzweil states that future combination of AI, nano-technology, and biotechnology will create a world where anything that can be imagined will be possible, raising the importance of imagination as the key mode of human thinking.[18] Global implicationsRita J. King has been the single major advocate of the Imagination Age concept and its implications on cultural relations, identity and the transformation of the global economy and culture. King has expounded on the concept through speeches at the O'Reilly Media and TED conferences[6][7][8] and has argued that virtual world technology and changes in people's ability to imagine other lives could promote world understanding and reduce cultural conflict.[19] Some public policy experts have argued the emergence of the Imagination Age out of the Information Age will have a major impact on overall public policy.[20] All are concepts discussed in The Purpose Economy[21] by Aaron Hurst,[22] and in the creation of The Purpose Revolution discussed in the Golden Age Companion Textbook.[23][24] See also
References
|
