From Dominated to Distributed Imagination Development

Each individual of a social system has its own imagination space that is embedded into a collective imagination space. The degree of overlap between imagination spaces can vary. Considering that most people are part of planetary communication systems most of use share at least a tiny bit of imagination space. Depending on communicative power structures, the imagination space of an individual can dominate the collective imagination space. Historically such dominance has developed through governance structures. Increasingly, such dominance develops through algorithmic prioritization on communication systems that operate beyond governance structures. What gets prioritized depends on algorithms and therefore who dominates their design. This is very visible in latest political developments. Considering that imagination and especially our value constructions shape our decisions and actions, such developments might become increasingly problematic. They might become especially problematic when considering that the collective planetary imagination space is increasingly dominated by a view ideas that spread through algorithmically engineered distribution. Hence, actions that follow these ideas could also be planetary and therefore lead to large scale human actions towards problematic directions. To move away from such imagination domination, we might need structures for distributed imagination development that enable emergence, planetary exchange and negotiation of diverse imaginations. Ideas would then spread by interest and significance, not by engineered communicative power structures.

Jan 16, 2025