Uplifting Wisdom: How To Reclaim The Power Behind AI.
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower - Dylan Thomas
Introduction
The astonishingly rapid advent of Artificial Intelligence now impacts practically every aspect of global organizational life. Managers, employees, and customers up and down the supply chain are all involved, directly or indirectly. Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, predicts over 300 million employees will be made redundant by 2030. While trillions of dollars in new business and profits beckon on the near horizon, the implications of this new dimension of human reality are barely understood.
There are some 8.2 billion humans alive today. The majority of us, 63%, are connected virtually almost instantly, anywhere, anytime via ubiquitous communications technologies and social media platforms. What animates all these vast networks are shared belief systems enabling cooperation across diverse groups. For example, a red stop sign universally signals "halt," assuring the same road rules, safety, and predictability wherever one may be.
Philosopher Noah Harari warns,? “AI could mark a turning point in human history, one where ?(we) lose control over the networks that have been (our) greatest source of power.” ?This danger was foreseen in the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The ’HAL 9000’, a “Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer,” was designed to support the mission and crew aboard an intergalactic spaceship. HAL malfunctioned due to a secret code override. Its new calculus evaluated human irrationality and unpredictability as a potential threat to the real mission if discovered. The only logical solution was, therefore, to kill the crew while asleep in stasis.
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Harari argues that “to understand (AI), we need to understand what has come before.?We have named our species?Homo sapiens, the wise human – but if humans are so wise, why are we doing so many self-destructive things? In particular, why are we on the verge of committing ecological and technological suicide?”? This essay offers an answer to why and a solution.
Imagination is not just powerful; it is power itself. Abhinavagupta
What’s Come Before
Artificial Intelligence is a dark mirror forcing us to reveal ourselves naked and unadorned. Age-old questions are no longer academic or cliché. Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going?
Approximately 35,000 years ago, humanity experienced a cognitive "big bang," triggering a neuropsychological shift for unknown causes. What emerged was "selfhood," as we know it. That is an innate sense of one’s core being. We feel our “I-ness” exists. In that space, the faculty of imagination was borne. Dr. T.S. Asana, a professor of philosophy, asserts that imagination predates abstract or linguistic knowledge. Early humans used imagery and body-based thinking to navigate their world before language emerged, to transcend physical limitations and picture possibilities beyond the immediate world and sheer survival. Their majestic cave paintings illustrate this early genius perfectly.
Imagination is not a late byproduct of language but a foundational adaptive trait for survival and cultural development. Evolutionary layers of imagination highlight its progression from basic sensory associations to complex abstract extra-sensory representations.
Homo Farber: Rocks to Rockets
Philosopher Henri? Bergson defined intelligence as the "faculty to create artificial objects, in particular tools to make tools, and to indefinitely variate its makings." Humans have applied imagination to adapt Earth's raw materials to survive and thrive. Our ancestors had knapped obsidian blades from hard volcanic rock so that sharp surgeons could use them today. The domestication of fire was another leap of imagination, from witnessing the first lightning-struck tree to the kiln that baked the bricks of Nineveh.
Since launching in 1977, Voyager 1? has traveled over 14.8 billion miles (23.8 billion kilometers) from Earth through interstellar space beyond our solar system's heliosphere. Voyager 1 is constructed to withstand extreme conditions, enduring radiation, cold temperatures, and the vacuum of space. The craft was manufactured using metals, composites, and materials. Most elements, like aluminum, titanium, copper, gold, silicon, carbon, and oxygen, are naturally abundant and widely distributed. Rare earth elements and platinum group metals are relatively scarce and require specialized mining processes. Plutonium-238 is the exception, as it is produced artificially in reactors. Voyager 1? is the pinnacle of scope, scale, and sophistication of human fabrication. However, in principle, the same dynamics were applied when early humans had knapped stone and baked bricks. It takes imagination to envision transforming Earth's raw materials to build civilization.
?The more AI-enabled work becomes, the more critical human imagination becomes. Deloitte
Reassessing Our Ontology and Cosmology
Henri Corbin, philosopher and scholar of medieval Shiite Sufi cosmology, voiced a similar warning to Harari’s half a century earlier.
?“For let us make no mistake. It is not enough to concede that our predecessors, in the West, had a conception of the imagination that was too rationalistic and too intellectualized. If we do not have available a cosmology whose schema can include, as does the one that belongs to our traditional philosophers, the plurality of universes in ascensional order, our imagination will remain unbalanced , its recurrent conjunctions with the will to power will be an endless source of horrors. We will be continually searching for a new discipline of the imagination, and we will have great difficulty in finding it as long as we persist in seeing in it only a certain way of keeping our distance with regard to what we call the real , and in order to exert an influence on that real. Now, that real appears to us as arbitrarily limited, as soon as we compare it to the real that our traditional theosophers have glimpsed, and that limitation degrades the reality itself.”
Deloitte surveyed 14,000 leaders globally for its 2024 Report on Global Human Capital Trends. Problematically, the obverse is occurring. 57% feel unprepared to address this factor, and some 30% are confused by it. Deloitte concludes that the way Gen AI is used now is atrophying cognitive capacity. Organizations are consequently experiencing an expensive "imagination deficit."?
Research reveals that most youth and adults (75%) worldwide don't believe they are imaginative or that they fulfill their creative potential. Moreover, 50% of respondents believe their education system is stifling. The creativity quotient of American students has decreased since the 1990s. Another study indicates that 71% of workers don't think they're expected to be creative. No wonder most chief executives (92%) don't believe their organizations are innovative. The overall consequence is a "widespread poverty-of-the-imagination," as described by UNESCO.
The advent of AI calls for a new, revitalized ontology that elevates human imagination beyond purely rationalistic conceptions. Similarly, a new cosmology must recognize multiple, interconnected, overlapping levels or dimensions of existence, each representing higher or more refined states of being, awareness, and wisdom beyond the visible and tangible.
The newest digital technologies are returning us to the most ancient form of media—one in which a natural order is restored. June? Cohen
Anticipatory Living Systems
Before the universe's formation, matter existed in extreme order. The Big Bang began the universe in a highly ordered, low-entropy state, concentrating all energy and matter. As the universe expanded, energy dispersed, and matter coalesced to form stars and galaxies, transitioning from order to increasing disorder (entropy).
This progression from order to disorder drives the flow of time as entropy grows with each moment. The Second Law of Thermodynamics explains this universal tendency, governing processes from the cooling of coffee to the life cycles of stars.
Inherent in that spread of energy is a creative impulse. An inherent energy—the push for emergence—manifests throughout nature. Life resists entropy. Living beings, including humans, create temporary pockets of order (low entropy) by harnessing energy and directing it toward growth, reproduction, and higher purpose.
The phrase "as above, so below, is the translation of an Arabic text from 900 C.E. that explains the gist of? Corbin's concept of ascending hierarchies, and first expounded in antiquity. The macrocosm (from Greek makros kosmos, "the great world") represents the universe as a vast living entity, while the microcosm (from Greek mikros kosmos, "the small world") views the human being as a miniature universe. This perspective of interconnected scales of existence appears in philosophical systems worldwide."
Sufis, for example, perceive imagination as not simply a mental activity but an ontological realm between our physical and spiritual dimensions—more ethereal than the former and more material than the latter. Shahabuddin Suhrawardi, the twelfth-century philosopher, called this realm "Na Koja Abad," the "place that is no place," where beingness is "in suspense," not reflected on anything but itself.
Hence, human development reflects the natural tendency toward purpose-driven evolution and complexity. Dylan Thomas's verse—The force that through the green fuse drives the flower—perfectly captures the indivisible relationship between humans on Earth and their enveloping natural systems, terrestrial (here) and universal (beyond). This same force driving emergence is expressed at different levels—galactic (the birth of a star), organic (a rose in bloom), and mental (a flash of inspiration).
In the 1980s, theoretical biologist Robert Rosen proposed that living systems can anticipate and respond to future conditions. A simple example is squirrels storing acorns in autumn to prepare for winter scarcity. This anticipatory behavior illustrates how complex systems evolve to shape their future states through increasingly sophisticated patterns. This concept of anticipatory living systems is also used to explain human behavior across various fields, including psychology, future studies, and organizational development. For example, a person saving money for retirement demonstrates anticipatory behavior. Similarly, a company investing in renewable energy to stay competitive anticipates future market conditions.
All living systems are inclined toward that which gives life.?Dr. Kim Cameron
Telos
Ancient philosophers believed that all things, including human beings, contain a potentiality that drives emergence (like the oak tree within the acorn). They called this Telos, which in ancient Greek meant "the end, limit, goal, fulfillment, completion" but was also imbued with a deeper sense of this being cyclical, not unidirectional. The even older root meaning was " revolve, move round," such as in a circle or wheel.
?These philosophers, therefore, characterized the cycle of living systems as follows:
Prospective Psychology
We feel this same "force" as our drive toward becoming who we aspire to become. Our awareness of potential mirrors nature's patterns. However, unlike acorns that solely produce oak trees, each person’s positive potentiality, or telos, is unique and must be actualized equally uniquely.
The mid-20th-century Human Potential Movement significantly influenced current thinking on the role of imagination in personal and professional development. In the 1950s, Dr. Abraham Maslow emphasized that "what a person can be, they must be. This need we call self-actualization."
According to Dr. Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology, "the extent to which we can imagine different futures is a measure of our freedom ."Recently, he's formulated a new 21st Century conceptual model, Prospective psychology explores this anticipatory impetus, emphasizing our ability to imagine various possible futures. What we picture – the mental images we generate - influences our character development, goals, and desires. We are not only Homo Sapiens, or Homo Farber,? but Homo Prospectus, as Seligman observes.
Entelechy is inside of you like the butterfly is inside of the caterpillar… it is the entelechy of an acorn to be an oak tree, of a baby to be a grown-up, of a popcorn kernel to be a fully popped entity, and of you and me to be God only knows what. Teilhard de Chardin
A caterpillar enters the chrysalis, a protective outer sheath, and becomes a butterfly. Within the chrysalis, the sleeping caterpillar's cells dissolve into an "imaginal soup" from which its new organic form emerges. While sharing the same genetic code, the caterpillar and butterfly are fundamentally different. This journey is a powerful metaphor for human transformation and self-actualization.
Future Self Continuity
Future Self-Continuity is a new field within psychology and behavioral economics founded by? Dr. Hal Hershfield at UCLA Anderson School of Management. The model and practice focus on the perceived connection between one's present and future selves. The correlation is typically assessed through scales measuring proximity, affinity, perceived link, or similarity to one's future self.
Empirical research has shown that individuals who score high tend to have cognitive clarity about their present and future selves, leading to a stronger sense of authenticity and meaning in life. Related benefits include psychological well-being, increased positive affect, ethical decision-making, motivation, and overall life satisfaction.
Active imagination plays a crucial role in future self-continuity by allowing individuals to create vivid and detailed mental representations of their future selves. Exercises include visualizing one's future self, virtually interacting with an aged version of oneself, or writing letters to and from the future self.
?Heliotropic Effect
The Heliotropic Effect is part of living systems' broader anticipatory behavior. Borrowed from botany, this describes the tendency of certain plants to orient themselves towards sunlight continually. This concept has been extended to humans and groups, suggesting that we strive to grow towards the positive images we envision for ourselves. The concept, borrowed from botany, refers to certain plants' tendency to turn towards sunlight continually. "Like a plant that grows in the direction of the light source, individuals and groups strive to grow towards the positive image they hold."??
The Roots of Wisdom
In this light, wisdom has new relevance. The linguistic root of wisdom is *weid-, meaning "to see” with perception. In Old English, “wis” conveyed the ability to judge rightly and act with discretion. The mind’s eye became an apt metaphor. Wisdom is about perceiving through a deeper, more intuitive lens. Our ability to see into life, people, and things beyond appearances is present to the senses. In other words, with insight. Terms like clairvoyance (clear-seeing) and intuition (inner-seeing) reveal how the mind’s eye connects insight with foresight.
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the conscious grasp of one's thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and impact on others. The benefits have been extolled for millennia. Self-awareness is strongly linked to personal and professional growth, better decision-making, enhanced relationships, and overall well-being. Research over two decades reveals that most people lack genuine self-awareness. This effort challenges one's carefully constructed self-image. Cognitive biases and defense mechanisms shield our egos from confronting uncomfortable truths. Leaders, for example, overestimate their effectiveness by 25-30%. Few of us actively seek candid feedback or engage in regular self-reflection. If we do not know who we indeed are, and worse, if we don't want to know ourselves, every major corporation and other malign forces will tell us who they want us to be and exploit our vacuity for profit.?
Imaginal Agility
Imaginal Agility emerges as the distinctive capacity that defines Homo Sapiens Prospectus. This faculty integrates our most profound biological heritage with our highest evolutionary potential. The term reveals its profound nature - 'imaginal' draws from the same root as 'imagination,' but suggests something more fundamental, like the imaginal cells that enable a caterpillar's transformation into a butterfly. 'Agility' derives from the Indo-European root 'ag,' meaning to drive or lead, the same dynamic force found in words like 'agenda' and 'agency.'
This capacity operates at multiple levels of human experience. At its foundation, it enables us to create and hold vivid mental images of potential futures. Yet it goes beyond mere visualization - it provides the dynamic force to move between present and future states with fluidity and purpose. Like the force that drives a seed to become a tree, Imaginal Agility contains both the vision of what could be and the impetus toward its realization.
领英推荐
?In the context of human development, Imaginal Agility manifests as our ability to envision possible futures while maintaining the flexibility to adapt our path toward them. It represents the human expression of nature's creative force - the same impetus that drives evolution and emergence throughout the cosmos, but now operating through conscious awareness and intentional direction.
The unexamined life is not worth living. Plato?
Developmental Pathways
Youth: Just as imagination predates language in human evolution, it remains the foundation of early development. The LEGO Foundation's research demonstrates this conclusively—children who engage in imaginative play develop stronger cognitive abilities than those focused on rote learning. Studies in over 40 countries show that imagination and play are not just enrichment activities but fundamental drivers of human development.
?Professionals: Stanford d.school's systematic imagination framework uses five key practices: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Their "Odyssey Planning" exercise has adults imagine three radically different five-year futures, expanding possibilities through structured visualization. Research shows this method increases both career satisfaction and innovative capacity.
Organizations: Organizations must nurture collective imagination. Patagonia's "Let My People Go Surfing" philosophy exemplifies honoring natural rhythms. Employees are encouraged to catch the perfect wave when it comes because they know creative insights often arise in moments of flow. Google's "20% time" extends this understanding, allowing vision and innovation to emerge naturally. Like living ecosystems, these organizations create spaces where imagination thrives through natural patterns of engagement and renewal.
Research: We can learn more about how imagination emerges as a transformative force. Many non-Western societies have continued to affirm the power of imagination in its intuitive, irrational, inexplicable, and mysterious aspects. For example, the Vedas, Tibetan Buddhism, Voudon, and Shamanism all posit worldviews wherein the imaginary and the real are interwoven and iterative.
Technology: Current AI development risks diminishing human imagination by favoring computational efficiency over creative potential. Yet AI could be developed differently - as a medium that expands our imaginative reach, much as the first cave paintings expanded our ancestors' ability to envision possibilities. This requires shifting from trying to replicate human cognition to designing tools that enhance our natural capacity for imagination, pattern recognition, and meaning-making. The goal isn't more intelligent machines but more imaginative humans.
?Conclusion
The force that drives the universe toward complexity lives within us as imagination. Just as the acorn contains the oak, our consciousness holds the seed of higher development. Understanding these emergence patterns - from anticipatory systems to future self-continuity - provides a natural map for cultivating imagination at any age.
This reveals why Aristotle's insight, "Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man," is such profound truth. The patterns that shape cosmic evolution also guide human imagination. Each person's imagination, like each seed, contains unique potential waiting to emerge.
The challenge is creating environments that nurture imaginative capacity from childhood through leadership. Education becomes an art of cultivating wisdom. Organizations become spaces where creative potential naturally flourishes. Technology must amplify rather than replace our distinctive human gift for imagining new possibilities.
In an age of artificial intelligence, understanding our natural imaginal power becomes not just philosophically profound but essential for survival, as it has ever been. The same force that transforms a caterpillar into a butterfly and ignites the stars illuminates our path forward - if we have the wisdom and courage to follow it.
?Coda
"I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as a plant and rose to an animal,
I died as an animal, and I was human,
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more, I shall die human,
To soar with angels blessed above.
And when I sacrifice my angel soul
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
…I shall be more than mortal mind can know”
Rumi Jalal ad'Din
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