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Imagination

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Imagination + Technology

Part of the book series: Human–Computer Interaction Series ((HCIS))

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Abstract

Imagination has never received the sustained attention it merits and (consequently) is typically treated as either related to the creation and manipulation of mental imagery or as a synonym for creativity. Yet, as we shall see, neither of these attributions are sufficient to account for all that imagination can do. As Johnson (1987 p. 172) puts it, “Imagination is central to human meaning and rationality for the simple reason that what we can experience and cognize as meaningful, and how we can reason about it, are both dependent on structures of imagination that make our experience what it is.” In short, imagination, is central to cognition. In this chapter we consider how imagination has been treated and how it has been defined, how it employs mental simulation and how it is crystallized (i.e. made material). We conclude that despite being one of the most ethereal of psychological faculties, it seems to be primarily oriented towards action and as Brann (1991, p. 6) puts it, imagination “… functions as the interface of world and mind”.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The economist magazine (https://www.economist.com/the-world-if/2018/07/05/a-different-dream) speculated on this and offered this warning, “Though it is often a mistake to attribute too much power to shape history to a single person, King’s death was the spur for improvements in civil rights and race relations that might not otherwise have occurred. Had he made it through 1968 alive, however, he would have ended the 1960 s as a controversial, divisive figure for many white Americans. A Gallup poll in 1966 found that only 32% of Americans had a positive view of King. In a Gallup survey in 1967 to identify the ten most-admired Americans, George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama, made the list. King did not”.

    The National Geographic magazine published their own thought experiment on this too (https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2018/04/what-if-martin-luther-king-jr-were-never-assassinated) and speculated whether “Dr. King may have successfully run for president as Mandela did.”

  2. 2.

    Jeannerod (2001) notes that basal ganglia are activated during imagined actions and that execution and imagination engage different parts of the striatum. The putamen, which is part of a purely sensorimotor corticocortical loop, is activated during execution, while the head of the caudate (part of the cognitive loop) is active during imagination.

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  1. School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh, UK

    Phil Turner

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  1. Phil Turner
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Turner, P. (2020). Imagination. In: Imagination + Technology. Human–Computer Interaction Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37348-1_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37348-1_1

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