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Capitalism has reached a critical mass and is about to implode on itself.
Steve Frazee
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https://medium.com/basic-income/post-capitalism-rise-of-the-collaborative-commons-62b0160a7048
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In the coming era, both capitalism and socialism will lose their once-dominant hold over society, as a new generation increasingly identifies with Collaboratism
Jeremy Rifkin
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Information, knowledge, and culture are central to human freedom and human development.
YOCHAI BENKLER
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The only true voyage of discovery (is) to behold the universe through the eyes of another.
Marcel Proust
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When we change the way we communicate, we change society.
Clay Shirky
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Diversity is talent
Scott Page
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Imaginomics: Economics for the Imagination Age
By Grant Munro
Abstract: Representative democracy was effective in the past when social systems were more stratified and simple. How-ever, in a time of exponential volatility and complexity, this model is no longer fit for purpose and needs to be replaced. This paper explains that to achieve change, we need to redesign the democratic process as a more responsive, socially distributed system. One that counters the impotent decision-making of centralised governance by harnessing the creative power of all citizens. To move away from the linear economics that dominated the Information Age, we must adopt an economic model that better responds to the unique needs of the Imagination Age. A paradigm shift we provisionally dub Imaginomics.
Introduction: Over millennia, the world has witnessed industrial revolutions in every single field of practice [1]. Industry 1.0 or Steam Age (circa 1784 – 1870) used water and steam power to run machines. Industry 2.0 or Electric Age (circa 1870 – 1969) used electricity to enable work-sharing mass production. Industry 3.0 or Information Age (circa 1969 – current) used electronics and IT to automate production. Our current Industry 4.0 or Imagination Age harnesses smart cyber-physical systems and user-centred content to innovate production. This shift away from information towards imagination is changing the way humans interact with each other and how they create economic and social value (see above). It also privileges imagination work over rational thinking as a foundation of culture and economics [2].
Despite these revolutionary changes, arguably our most widespread institution, representative democracy, has changed surprisingly little over the centuries. While there are many forms of representative democracy, most involves divesting voting rights to representatives who act on our behalf when making decisions. Despite its record-breaking utility as a system of governance, there are four main problems with this model: 1) citizens are expected to vote for a small set of representatives who may not share their political views; 2) representatives are only loosely held accountable for their actions during their time in public office; 3) representative democracies lead to corruption due to power concentration; and 4) significant electoral barriers remain due to the onerous voting process and inability to use digital networks to enable engagement.
It is important to remember that such a system was no pioneer in terms of governance, and will likely be re-placed by a more responsive system going forward. Historically, democracy has emerged in many different forms over time. Indeed, Ancient Greek democracy was more participatory in nature than our current system. Clearly, representative democracy has been a great success in many ways. When it was first established in the C18, it solved many problems. At that time, education and communication was limited to social elites. This meant employees had no way of participating in politics and benefited from representatives serving their government. Representatives could also apply global policies to problems as C18 society was less fragmented and specialist. Since its arrival in the C18, representative democracy has been continually linked to social benefits, such as pulling people out of poverty, improving living standards and increasing longevity, among others [3]. 
With the emergence of instantaneous communication and improved education, specialist C21 societies can now engage in participatory democracy, rendering C18 representative democracy rather redundant. In addition, hyper diversification and fragmentation of C21 society have made social issues increasingly unpredictable and complex. Due to this volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, specialised policies have increased exponentially in line with the ever-changing psychosocial needs of its citizens. 
The problem posed by this increasingly VUCA world is that our political and economic decision-making representatives are too entrenched in their own political survival to think strategically about how disruptive innovation can respond to uncertainty. In addition, many of the decisions our political representatives are making are based on flawed scientific methods, many of which are subject to bias and thus false [4]. Faced with such challenges, it is clear representative democracies are no longer fit for purpose, and that their biases may lead to a horrendous backlash with disastrous consequences [3]. 
This type of scenario should not only concern billionaire investment bankers or technocrats, but also those of us within the social disciplines such as education, communications and health. As the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby recently said on his first visit to Davos, the changes needed are not solely economic but also spiritual – “This is not just about money, it is about what it is to be human.” As a government, we need to start in-vesting in people.
Problems with capitalist democracy: Many writers since the 19th century have claimed that capitalist democracy has reached its end. Whether optimistic grand utopias celebrating our final emergence into greater beings, or cynical dystopias marred with death and destruction, most books have come to nothing. From Marx to Piketty, the evident failure in this growing anti-capitalist shift is that writers always underestimate their rivals while overestimating their own complex theories. Recent postcapitalism ideas such as “the sharing economy” [5] or “zero marginal cost society” [6] argue that our ability to make transactions more personable and peer-to-peer will radically change the system. These postcapitalist ideas are not being championed by the political fringe. Left-wing leaders both sides of the Atlantic [5], [6] are integrating such ideas into their political manifestos. The problem with adopting this view is that changing manufacturing processes alone will not change the system.
This is because at the heart of all capitalist democracies is the issue of corruption. In other words, the fundamental disparity between how natural human systems works and how governments dominate and retain power over them [7]. Any leadership manipulating legislation and public systems to maintain power is clearly one based on corruption. As long as we have a system of representative democracy whereby candidates are elected to authorise power, corruption will dominate. Indeed, evidence for this polarisation of power can been seen in our two-party political system, and the proportional coalition variants they produce. This polarisation of power means voters are not voting necessarily for the party that reflects their needs, but rather the party they find the least offensive or disagreeable [8].
As a result, two-party political systems tend to breed inter- and intra- party friction in their drive to simplify social problems. Despite the recent emergence of minor parties, most voters avoid voting for them as they are unlikely to gain the necessary parliamentary seats to wield power. Invariably, citizens favour voting and sup-porting either of the two major parties to avert political uncertainty. Such polarisation is not unique to representative democracy but rather reflects the accepted notion of “one person, one vote”. The problem with this mindset however is that this fails to recognise that voter interests are not evenly distributed. Voters who may not be passionate about an issue can nonetheless use their vote against those who do support the issue. The strategy politicians adopt when trying to pass a bill in a non-distributed static democracy is therefore to create the largest voting bloc. While democracies may adopt different methods to create the largest voting bloc, the underlying problem nonetheless is the question of who will gain power? Arguably the most important rule in all democracies [9].
The problem with this democratic model of governance is that there is no authoritative source of knowledge. Within any particular social situation, a multitude of ways of knowing exist. While some approaches carry more weight than others, the constitution of authoritative knowledge is an ongoing social process that builds and reflects power relationships within a community of practice [10], [11]. If political movements fail to integrate this reality into the democratic process, humanity will never fully reach its potential. This holds true whether we decide that authority rests either with the people or their leaders. The pressing task of redesigning our democracy thus requires us to reframe our traditional idea of authority. At this current time, no democratic system has delivered on such a promise. It is unlikely tinkering at the edges of our current systems will ignite the necessary flame to bring about systematic change.
To do this, we need to redesign the democratic process as a more responsive, socially distributed system. One that counters the impotent decision-making of centralised governance by harnessing the creative power of all citizens. To move away from the linear economics that dominated the Information Age, and adopt an economic model that better responds to the unique needs of the Imagination Age. A paradigm shift we provisionally dub Imaginomics – from the Latin term for “imagination” (imaginātio) and Greek term for “law” (νόμος, nómos).
Why cultivating Imaginomics matters: In a time of economic uncertainty and unprecedented change, growing consensus suggests Britain needs a new system of governance fit for the Imagination Age – one that harnesses ideas and expertise from diverse stakeholders. However, one should also remember that placing all our hopes in new technology is not the answer. Technology alone never caused a revolution. People do. More specifically, the creative capacity of people to adapt to change [1]. These adaptive skills we learn, broadly referred to as creativity not only augments our ability to reproduce, survive and grow [12], [13] but also determines our socioeconomic success over time [13]–[15]. This is why we need a new socioeconomic model that sparks and nurtures it. Not only for the wellbeing of individuals, but also the betterment of society as a whole.
This idea that creativity predicts optimal life outcomes is not an idealistic theory but rather one rooted in sound evidence-based practice. Studies show that people scoring high in creativity tend to be ranked as more socially desirable and effective [16], [17]. By contrast, low creativity scorers typically adopt unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as poor diet, physical inactivity and drug misuse [18], [19]. As a result of these poor lifestyle choices, many illnesses tend to arise in low creativity scorers, such as metabolic syndrome [20], cardiovascular disease [21], [22] and dementia [23]. Studies from cognitive science have also linked three genetic-based brain circuits to people’s ability to respond creatively to life situations (see below). These circuits include: the central dopaminergic system (which fuels self-expression); the serotonergic system (which mediates self-awareness); and the pre-supplementary motor area (which enables self-regulation).
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The reason creativity fosters healthier and happier life experiences in people is due to its ability to improve auto-nomic balance, as expressed in the ratio of low frequency (sympathetic) to high frequency (parasympathetic) activity [24]. Creativity helps people stay vigilant and think clearly, which has the additional benefit of boosting physiological coherence and healthy aging [24]. However, nurturing creativity is not only key to social wellbeing and healthy aging. It also has the ability to help us solve the increasingly complex problems we face in the 21st century.
Creativity fuels production and profitability: In a time of socioeconomic volatility and change, a new picture is emerging of the skills humanity needs to cultivate to ensure its future success. While these skillsets are diverse, all coalesce around the idea of creativity. What studies show is that creativity matters at every level of society – from the factory floor to the executive board-room [25]. This means our economic future is predicted by whether we choose to foster creativity or not. Governments thus need to prioritise development of policies that fuel creativity, so innovation (i.e. the implementation of creative ideas) can flourish and prosper [25]. The rationale for building an Imaginocracy can be found in the three evidence-based factors supporting innovation:
Creative leadership is fundamental: A global survey of 1,500 CEOs by IBM ranked creativity as the number 1 trait for future growth. Even more than rigor, management discipline, integrity or vision – creativity is recognised as a prerequisite for successfully navigating our increasingly complex world [26]. Why should creativity play such a key role? Because leaders need to solve problems in novel ways to stay ahead of change. To achieve this, CEOs will need to identify and foster creativity at all levels of their organisations to maintain competitiveness. NESTA’s Everyday Innovation survey particularly found this to be the case, revealing creativity as not just a tool for C-level strategists but rather key to how all em-ployees should work within organizations [27]. In other words, the fact we can all find novel ways of solving problems implies creativity is not simply a choice, but rather an imperative for success.
Creativity and innovation is profitable: Surveys by the Boston Consulting Group cite creativity and in-novation as strategic imperatives that help companies solve complex problems and sustain profitability [28]. The Connecting Innovation to Profit report by Ernst & Young found successful companies cite their achievements on their ability to nurture creativity [29]. A similar study of 190 agile companies by Bottani (2010) also found a company’s ability to adapt to change was dependent on creativity [30].
Creativity boost self-image and productivity: A global survey of 5,000 adults by Adobe found bus ness-es that invested in creativity benefited from increased productivity (78%) and customer satisfaction (80%). 85% of respondents said creativity made them better leaders, parents and students. Creatives also reported a stronger self-image and were happier to work and earn more money (on average 13%) than non-creatives [31].
The creativity gap: Despite clear evidence linking creativity to increased productivity and profitability, investing in creativity isn't high on the agenda for enough of today's leaders. We still have a creativity gap [31]. Many of the studies cited above should provide a wake-up call to people in business and government that they need to think differently. Policy-makers need to provide new social tools to fuel citizen engagement in innovation and social change. In the coming decades, society will face more challenges than ever, and we will need to run our institutions differently. People may not be familiar with how politics works, but they do nonetheless possess huge resources of creative expertise. Significant investment in creative citizen participation is not just good for business – it ensures government is fit for purpose over the long term.
Harnessing creative citizen participation via crowdsourcing: Citizen engagement is currently confined to elections, opinion polls or jury service. In all cases, leaders simply ask citizens what they feel, not what they know and can do – even though democracy should be ruled by, for and with the people. With expertise rooted in lived experience that is widely distributed throughout society, we have already witnessed this paradigm shift from professional experts to citizen experts in everything from travel reviews to medical advising [32]. We have an abundance of academic scholars that rarely have the opportunity to inform government on policy. Such expertise is also not confined to academic groups with PhD credentials. So how do we connect the distributed knowledge of citizen experts to governance and make democratic insti-tutions more participatory? Clearly, all public decision making could benefit from greater diversity of creative expertise. Indeed, our digital healthcare sector in particular has called for more citizen participation in designing services, so they are more responsive and relevant to those who use them most [33], [34].
C21 information and communications technology (ICT) has the potential to enable all adult citizens to participate equally in the proposal, development and creation of laws [35]. Provision of a citizen engagement platform could radically switch governance from a top-down representative model (i.e. where public officials make deci-sions based on best practice with minimal public involvement), to a bottom-up Imaginomics model, where citizens share their stories, vote on what’s important to them, and help develop solutions. Using a citizen engagement platform guarantees elected officials stay in touch with citizen needs over time, even when no one is running for office. This Imaginomics model also supports a more scalable voting system, empowering citizens to either vote on issues directly, or to delegate their voting power to a trusted representative who has more knowledge or interest about key issues or simply more time to stay engaged. In the current network age, it is simply unacceptable that only 65-70% of people in Britain are having a say in their own futures. It’s easy to assume that apathy is the main cause, but the reality more complex and nuanced. What is clear is that voter turnout would be higher if citizens could vote online. Indeed, banking, military and government sectors already use digital platforms to liaise on sensitive information, which suggests security and verification is not such an issue.
Online crowdsourcing platforms now make it possible to include many people in the design process through shared knowledge, brainstorms, conception and evaluation. A recent example is Mapatón CDMX in Mexico City, which implemented a crowdsource, technology based strategy to reach its goals. Over two weeks in February 2016, citizens mapped the entire public transport systems using their mobile phones. From the data collected, an SMS-based app was developed allowing commuters to enter an origin and destination and get route information. Crowdsourcing doesn’t just collect data or ask people to brainstorm ideas. Amnesty International’s Decoders Network harnessed the creative power of 8,000 volunteers from 150 countries to identify human rights violations using satellite photographs. The Smarter Crowdsourcing for Zika project, coordinated hundreds of international experts in response to the Zika outbreak to coordinate informed government responses to mosquito-borne viruses.
It would be wrong to suggest crowdsourcing platforms use citizen engagement to simply ensure people con-form to legal frameworks. At its core, crowdsourcing tools enable government to map invisible citizen narratives, attract more people to solving complex social problems, and ultimately generate more novel strategies that are culturally relevant. This is not to suggest that citizen engagement and participation involves the mass population groups. Rather, we should build a range of different programs and tools that speak to people’s knowledge, experience and passions to map problems, design policies, draft solutions or participate in implementation.
In our network age, governments must ensure citizen engagement is no longer restricted to specialist groups, and instead, look to broader social networks with innovative ideas to contribute. The Zika project for example benefited from representatives of the World Health Organization, a data analytics researcher from Pakistan and a social entrepreneur from New York, who had designed an app to coordinate school children to pick up trash where water collects.
Benefits of Imaginomic platforms and policies
While crowdsourcing models are still in their infancy, the principles of Imaginomics have the potential to offer future government sustainable and responsive solutions to complex projects. This is because Imaginomics is more:
Democratic. Voters can choose to either vote personally or delegate someone else. This contrasts current models, where users are limited to either vote for themselves, or vote for a representative once every election cycle.
Accessible. The minimum requirement for becoming a delegate is another person’s trust. Anyone willing to take on this responsibility, can thus become a delegate, only a person’s knowledge about an issue matters in winning over delegates.
Cooperative. Unlike other models, Imaginomics delegates compete solely on the basis of earning voter trust through continued efforts and proof of one’s merit, willingness and ability to improve services.
Responsible. Provisional trust creates a sense of responsibility and accountability for delegates, because they could lose their delegated voting power, so are more likely to act honestly and for public rather than personal benefit.
Inclusive. Due to its low entry barrier, minorities are more proportionally represented in government. This means no specific laws that require group-specific representation need to be implemented.
Agile. By evolving into an agile network of experts that make well-informed domain-specific decisions, Imaginomics emerges as a meritocracy of skilled voters that make decisions in their area of knowledge.
Scalable. Via delegation, the decision-making process is placed in the hands of well-informed experts. who are willing to allocate their time and knowledge to improving overall governance of the country.
Looking to the future: There is a growing sentiment globally that democracy is failing. Approval ratings are the lowest ever and the number of people who feel they want to live in a democracy has been in decline for decades [35]. To respond effectively with the rise in economic uncertainty and unprecedented change, we need a radical solution beyond that of representative democracy. This is why building Imaginomic systems based on crowdsourcing technologies has so much potential. If our rationale holds, Imaginomics will usher in a new era of political prosperity by harnessing the creative power of all citizens. This will result in an exponential rise in the quality, power and reach of political ideas. No longer will governance fall behind other human endeavours. We will finally have a political revolution with the kind of social impact C18 democracy provided us millennia ago.
Conclusion: The future of democracy is bright. Our current authoritarian model of democracy can be radically reframed by initiating programs that harness creative citizen democracy – aka Imaginomics. Imaginomics is a beacon of hope in these challenging times. It breaks through the authoritarian barrier of current systems by using the power of citizen participation to guide policy. By allowing reorganisation of power to reflect the distributed knowledge of citizens, we can enable a far more productive and prosperous future. If significant tranches of society support this change, we can break out of static democracy and focus on self-improvement. The only way to avoid the destruction of humanity is the open ended creation of new knowledge. Without embodying this idea in political systems, we cannot hope to overcome the multifaceted challenges humanity faces in the future. Imaginomics is designed not just to embody this value, but also to enable itself to be adapted and extended over time. So that the power of citizen creativity can enable society to flourish and prosper for years to come.
Authors: The political movement known as the Innovation Party was founded in Britain in Sep 2017 by creative technicians Grant Munro and Mathieu Gosselin. The Innovation Party's primary purpose is to promote social programs and tools that fuel creative citizen participation in democracy (aka Imaginomics). A new distributed and participatory form of democracy that stimulates ideas and political innovation across multiple levels of government. The Innovation Party’s core strategy is to integrate the model of Imaginomics into existing representative democracies. It will achieve this by first establishing the Innovation Party, and then standing candidates in elections. Elected Innovation Party candidates will vote in alignment with the results captured by the Inov8 digital voting platform. In addition to running candidates at elections, the Innovation Party aims to influence current sitting parliamentary members to champion British innovation, and commit to using crowdsourcing tools in their work.
References
[1] K. Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Crown Publishing Group, 2017.
[2] B. Reich, The imagination gap: stop thinking the way you should and start making extraordinary things happen. Emerald Group Publishing, 2017.
[3] T. Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Harvard University Press, 2017.
[4] J. P. A. Ioannidis, “Why most published research findings are false,” PLoS Med., vol. 2, no. 8, p. e124, Aug. 2005.
[5] P. Mason, PostCapitalism: a guide to our future. Penguin UK, 2015.
[6] J. Rifkin, The zero marginal cost society: the internet of things, the collaborative commons, and the eclipse of capitalism. St. Martin’s Press, 2014.
[7] J. Painter and A. Jeffrey, Political Geography. Sage Publications, 2009.
[8] W. S. Churchill, Churchill by himself. Rosetta Books, 2013.
[9] J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, socialism and democracy. Routledge, 1976.
[10] J. Lave and E. Wenger, Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
[11] E. Wenger, Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
[12] J. Musek, “A general factor of personality: evidence for the Big One in the five-factor model,” J. Res. Personal., vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 1213–1233, Dec. 2007.
[13] J. P. Rushton and P. Irwing, “The general factor of personality: normal and abnormal,” in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Individual Differences, T. Chamorro-Premuzic, S. von Stumm, and A. Furnham, Eds. Blackwell Publishing, 2011.
[14] T. A. Judge and J. E. Bono, “Relationship of core self-evaluations traits--self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability--with job satisfaction and job performance: a meta-analysis,” J. Appl. Psychol., vol. 86, no. 1, pp. 80–92, 2001.
[15] C. R. Cloninger, “What makes people healthy, happy, and fulfilled in the face of current world challenges?,” Mens Sana Monogr., vol. 11, no. 1, p. 16, 2013.
[16] S. Erdle, P. Irwing, J. P. Rushton, and J. Park, “The general factor of personality and its relation to self-esteem in 628,640 Internet respondents,” Personal. Individ. Differ., vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 343–346, Feb. 2010.
[17] C. S. Dunkel and D. Van der Linden, “Evidence for the general factor of personality as social-effectiveness,” Personal. Individ. Differ., vol. 64, pp. 147–151, 2014.
[18] S. Israel et al., “Translating personality psychology to help personalize preventive medicine for young adult patients.,” J. Pers. Soc. Psychol., vol. 106, no. 3, pp. 484–498, 2014.
[19] A. M. Belcher, N. D. Volkow, F. Moeller, and S. Ferré, “Personality traits and vulnerability or resilience to substance use disorders.,” Trends Cogn. Sci., vol. 18, pp. 211–7, 2014.
[20] H. Friedman and L. R. Martin, The Longevity Project: surprising discoveries for health and long life from the landmark eight decade study. Hay House, Incorporated, 2011.
[21] A. Steptoe and G. J. Molloy, “Personality and heart disease,” Heart, vol. 93, no. 7, pp. 783–784, Jul. 2007.
[22] J. Denollet, A. A. Schiffer, and V. Spek, “A general propensity to psychological distress affects cardiovascular outcomes evidence from research on the Type D (distressed) personality profile,” Circ. Cardiovasc. Qual. Outcomes, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 546–557, Sep. 2010.
[23] L. Arab and M. N. Sabbagh, “Are certain life style habits associated with lower Alzheimer disease risk?,” J. Alzheimers Dis. JAD, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 785–794, 2010.
[24] A. H. Zohar, C. R. Cloninger, and R. McCraty, “Personality and heart rate variability: exploring pathways from personality to cardiac coherence and health,” Open J. Soc. Sci., vol. 01, no. 06, pp. 32–39, 2013.
[25] F. D. Beule and Y. Nauwelaerts, Innovation and creativity: pillars of the future global economy. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013.
[26] S. Tomasco, “IBM 2010 Global CEO Study: creativity selected as most crucial factor for future success,” IBM, 2010.
[27] F. Patterson, M. Kerrin, G. Gatto-Roissard, and P. Coan, “Everyday innovation: how to enhance innovative working in employees and organisations,” Lond. NESTA, 2009.
[28] D. Kiron, N. Kruschwitz, K. Haanaes, M. Reeves, and E. Goh, “The innovation bottom line: how companies that see sus-tainability as both a necessity and an opportunity, and change their business models in response, are finding success,” MIT Sloan Manag. Rev., vol. 54, no. 3, p. 1, 2013.
[29] Ernst & Young, “Connecting innovation to profit: five key insights from the world’s leading entrepreneurs,” EYGM, 2010.
[30] E. Bottani, “Profile and enablers of agile companies: an empirical investigation,” Int. J. Prod. Econ., vol. 125, no. 2, pp. 251–261, Jun. 2010.
[31] Adobe, “State of create: 2016,” Adobe, 2016.
[32] D. Meert, “Why citizen experts are the new paradigm,” CitizenLab, 05-Feb-2016. [Online]. Available: https://www.citizenlab.co/blog/civic-engagement/citizen-experts-as-the-next-paradigm/. [Accessed: 09-Oct-2017].
[33] H. Eyles et al., “Co-design of mHealth delivered interventions: a systematic review to assess key methods and processes,” Curr. Nutr. Rep., 2016.
[34] E. B.-N. Sanders and P. J. Stappers, “Co-creation and the new landscapes of design,” Co-Des., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 5–18, 2008.
[35] H. Jafarkarimi, A. Sim, R. Saadatdoost, and J. M. Hee, “The impact of ICT on reinforcing citizens’ role in government deci-sion making,” Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Adv. Eng., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 642–646, 2014.
[36] A. Taub, “How stable are democracies? ‘Warning signs are flashing red,’” The New York Times, 29-Nov-2016.
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How Technology Is Leading Us Into the Imagination Age
By Raya Bidshahri Nov 19, 2017 In many ways, the future is unpredictable. A report by the World Economic Forum reveals that almost 65 percent of the jobs elementary school students will be doing in the future do not even exist yet. Combined with technological automation and the disappearance of traditional jobs, this leaves us with a critical question: how can we survive such a world?
The answer may be imagination.
Initially coined by Rita J. King, the imagination age is a theoretical period beyond the information age where creativity and imagination will become the primary creators of economic value. This is driven by technological trends like virtual reality and the rise of digital platforms like YouTube, all of which increase demand for user-generated content and creativity. It is also driven by automation, which will take away a lot of monotonous and routine jobs, leaving more higher-ordered and creative jobs.
“In the imagination age, we can collectively imagine and create the future we want to inhabit before we lose that chance,” says Rita. “This isn’t just about generating utopian visions to make ourselves feel better about the challenges we face. We can rapidly prototype and test ideas to alter our systems and lives.”
The Imagination Economy
Technological trends are giving rise to what many thought leaders refer to as the “imagination economy.” This is defined as “an economy where intuitive and creative thinking create economic value, after logical and rational thinking has been outsourced to other economies.”
Automation has a role to play in the outsourcing process. A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute found that jobs involving data collection, data processing, and predictable physical work were most likely to be automated and outsourced to technology. In contrast, the hardest activities to automate are those involving complex expertise in decision-making, planning, human interaction, imagination, or creative work. Unsurprisingly, humans continue to outdo machines when it comes to innovating and pushing intellectual, imaginative, and creative boundaries.
Economists like Michael Cox point out that jobs in publishing are declining, while jobs for designers, architects, actors and directors, software engineers, and photographers are growing. Adding to the trend, this century has seen a growth in games and interactive media jobs. All of this marks the beginning of the imagination age.
Need for Educational Reform
One of the tragedies of traditional education is that it was designed for the industrial age.
But now we’re not only living in the information age, we’re already moving on to the imagination age. Most traditional schools have failed to keep up with the effects of exponential growth on our world. Instead of putting an emphasis on grades or content knowledge, we need to start putting an emphasis on 21st-century survival skills. This includes keeping up with the increasing economic value of imagination and creativity.
Contrary to popular belief, imagination and creativity are a) not completely intuitive/innate, and b) not just critical for those officially in creative jobs. Like any other skill, these abilities can be cultivated and are critical to individuals from all professional backgrounds. Entrepreneurs, scientists, writers, corporate leaders, and innovators can all gain from enhanced creativity and imagination.
There are many ways to improve these abilities in young minds. One way to cultivate creativity is to place an increasing focus on multi-disciplinary thinking, where students are taught to make cross-curricular links and see problems from many different angles and contexts.
Another critical method is to encourage students to not just be passive consumers of information, but also to be involved in creative processes as active doers, using the knowledge they gain to actively solve problems. Other imagination-enabling activities can include self-reflection, creative writing, listening to inspiring non-lyrical music, immersing oneself in creative films or books, and so on.
Imagining the Future
There is more than just economic value to be gained from the emergence of the imagination age. Before we go about shaping the future, we first need to decide what kind of future we want to live in. This is  where imagination is a powerful force. In the words of the prime minister of Dubai, his highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, “The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it, and execute it. It’s not something you await but rather create.”
The ability to envision radical and exciting futures, for ourselves as individuals and collectively as a species, is a fuel for human progress. After all, it is the reason Albert Einstein famously said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
In many ways, we are already living in our imaginations. Consider this: every invention or human construct—whether it be the spaceship, an architectural wonder, or a device like an iPhone—once existed as a mere idea, imagined in someone’s mind. The world we have designed and built around us is an extension of our imaginations.
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What is now proved was once only imagined.
William Blake
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Imagination: the path to the future
by Rita J. King
If the past was the Industrial Era, and the future is the Intelligence Era, where do we currently stand? Rita J. King says it’s the Imagination Age, and in order to thrive in this time of innovation and creativity, we need leaders who are willing to let their imaginations run wild.
The future is coming at us much faster than we can change. As spectacular as our brains are, they are also slow to adjust, no matter how slowly or quickly reality shifts around us. Think of the physical brain as hardware, and imagine culture and experience as software programs that are being constantly upgraded.
While the stream of data surrounding us gets more chaotic and overwhelming, we still react like our prehistoric predecessors, taking comfort in tribes, fearing outsiders, and remaining absorbed in our immediate realities. Despite this, our brains do have a unique superpower: the ability to imagine. We tend to think of imagination as something children do while play-acting the future, but that view is extremely limiting. Imagination is how the neurons in our brains make connections between ideas.
Right now, we can see that the Industrial Era is fading, but not yet gone, and the Intelligence Era is coming, but not yet here. The period of transformation in between—and where we are now—is the Imagination Age.
Right now the business landscape is transforming. The dynamics of our personal lives are shifting. How the next generation will be educated is completely up in the air. The people who want to forge a new path forward are scattered around the world. The current Imagination Age is when we must navigate the chaos of rapid change to proactively shape the future, instead of just letting it happen to us and those who come after us.
At a time when everything is moving at a dizzying speed, it’s hard to find the time to organize and simplify for greater clarity. And yet, an unprecedented opportunity to shape the future has emerged. To seize this chance, we have to think of technology as an extension of our own creativity—not as an artificial, dehumanizing external force created by a few people and consumed by everyone else.
The creation process that unfolds in the Imagination Age will be orchestrated by leaders who understand that the future is a story we are creating in real time. And as we embark on this process, we will need a new type of leader who can excel in a few key areas.
Building truly diverse teams
What is diversity? If you have a table with 10 faces around it, does diversity mean that those 10 people (or at least some of them) should simply look different? Even that in itself would be a refreshing change of pace from the long-standing norm. But true diversity is cognitive—not skin deep. Our brains save energy by relying on categorization to define “us” and “them.” Imagination is required to overcome this bad habit.
For example, a group of people who look different but who were all raised in the same neighborhood, attending the same schools and participating in the same activities, will be more much more alike on a fundamental level than a group of people who look the same but were raised in radically different circumstances. How people react to life, relate to one another, develop themselves, and solve problems is what defines character and ultimately, provides necessary diversity.
Being in power
The word “empowered” implies that a shift of power results in power being given to a person or a group of people. The opposite is true. Power is earned, won, or taken. Leaders are in power, not empowered. What leaders do with their power is what defines them.
Still at a crossroads, we are trying to jump out of one legacy system straight into a completely new way of thinking and being. It was easy in many respects to design for an industrial reality, with its heavy engines and mechanical work style. Tailoring the education system to prepare students for the future included testing them as individuals and training them to obey both the clock and authority.
The Intelligence Era ahead presents a much more difficult design problem. Since it isn’t yet here, it remains a nebulous mystery. The threats we face, from cyberwar to CO2, will also be invisible. The information that gives us unprecedented insight will stream into unseen databases in the aptly named cloud. The increasingly powerful and interconnected architecture behind these systems will remain out of almost everyone’s sight.
Future leaders need to be able to make the invisible visible so that others can participate in shaping this new reality. In the Imagination Age, the desired outcome is a collective increase in intelligence that enables us to shape our own evolution as we head into the future. And imagination is what makes the invisible visible.
The original story
The idea for The Imagination Age was sparked by a little girl I met several years ago who told me that I was the only adult who made her feel like her imagination didn’t have to die when she grew up. Her remark made me realize that the death of the imagination would be as catastrophic for humanity as the loss of flight would be for birds, unable without their special skill to migrate, mate, stay safe, forage and make nests.
Imagination relates not only to creativity, but also to critical thinking, foresight, and the ability to execute. Imagination is required to see beyond appearances to what truly connects us.
That little girl turned 18 this year. Along with her, the Imagination Age has matured past its early, experimental era. It is now a codified system of action, practiced by countless people and organizations around the world. She successfully reached adulthood with her imagination intact, but we need millions more like her. We need billions.
Imagine that.
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imaginomics · 6 years
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The creative adult is the child who survived.
Ursula K. LeGuin
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