I love to browse. It leads to unexpected choices that I might not have otherwise thought of. An interesting book cover, an engaging product design on a store shelf, something I saw, something I heard, all experiences of random input that I curate before deciding on an action. In short, discovering something serendipitously that stimulates my imagination rather than reinforcing an existing perspective. 

 

For example, When I was younger I had a relatively narrow concept of the kind of music I liked. I had my favorite bands and that was that. And then one day I was in a record store looking for a specific album when a recording started playing over the sound system. I didn't ask for it and didn't know what it was but was captivated. It was Coltrane. That observation sparked my curiosity which in turn motivated me to inquire. Fifty years later and I'm still inquiring. That kind of experience has happened to me countless times and involved wide ranging subject areas. 

 

But observation, curiosity, and inquiry also apply to the technological advancements that have had a profound impact on practically every aspect of our lives. From the printing press, through the Industrial Revolution, to the proliferation of digital computation, these innovations didn't just magically appear. They were influenced by those that came before. Sometimes they were improved upon and sometimes they sparked an imaginative response that led to an entirely new innovation. It is this relationship between technology and human creativity that is at the heart of this project. We will look a bit more closely at the technological innovations and the people who created and utilized them and layout the process of combinatorial innovation and collaboration that has made all of that possible.  

 

But throughout history the trajectories of technological innovation and human creativity were proximate and evolved at a relatively consistent pace. That is until the 20th century. That is when technological advancement began to accelerate as visualized by climatologist Michael Mann's famous 1999 hockey stick graph. The question then became whether or not our ability to creatively adapt would be able to keep up. 

 

Now we find ourselves navigating a digital age that is merging with the rapidly expanding capabilities of AI and the theoretical possibilities of quantum computing. And it is becoming clear that our creative evolution is falling behind the accelerating pace of technological change. This environment has begun to commandeer our attention and affect us cognitively, co-opting our curation through algorithms that are designed to manipulate us into buying what companies want to sell. Our agency is in danger of slipping away. A streaming platform tells us what movie we should watch, and an online shopping platform what deodorant we should buy. 

 

There are, of course, a multitude of questions and concerns about all of this that deserve our attention but this project primarily focuses on the impact that our relationship with technology has on our sense of creative agency. What effect is it having on our imagination, our ability to pretend, our innate ability to be creative? There is a difference between a child playing in a world of make believe that they have created and a child that has an AI companion design and build that world for them. That is the difference between someone who is creating and someone who is merely consuming. 

 

The technological evolution shows every sign of continuing its upward trajectory so how we adapt to that will be critical. It's easy to simply give in to the comfort of AI, to have it do everything. But are we really willing to surrender our agency? I hope not.