Artificial Imagination Cone

Humans deeply struggle with fundamental transformations, especially those transformations that need to engage with the mental conditions out of which we imagine. What if the automation of imagination makes such transformations more difficult or even impossible? Computers can perceive a certain excerpt of reality packaged as information. In generative AI systems such input gets computed against the backdrop of prior inputs. This process forms an inferring model of reality that projects certain assumptions onto the world. This model does not develop in isolation and rather across human and non-human actors as extended cognition. When you create a prompt the response emerges from such a perception space. From there, AI systems can generate possible realities. Such imagination space is conditioned by the related information space. Much has been said about the differentiation between artificial and natural intelligence. I think it is important to mention that information is just one input layer within many. Without promoting exceptionalism it can be argued that the experience of biological beings is much more layered. Furthermore, humans are able to reflect and change the preconfigurations of what they imagine. We deeply struggle with that and it is one of the reasons why fundamental transformations do not emerge, but we have the capability to do so. Some argue that AI systems are able to rewrite the conditions that created them. Though, as outputs show, these systems operate mostly within reproduction loops of dominant imaginations. The issues that emerge from biases are one expression of that. It still has to be explored if AI systems are actually able to innovate the mental conditions within which they are embedded. Going back to the initial question it can be observed that an increasing amount of people are outsourcing their future-oriented thinking, from weekend planning to major life or organizational planning. If AI systems are only able to operate within dominant cognitive spaces, the automation of imagination will stabilize current development directions, especially if humans follow the proposed options without critical reflection.

Aug 15, 2025