Imagination is important.
Arguably, every major problem on earth can be attributed to either lack or excess of imagination. Terrorists/suicide bombers have too much imagination about afterlife.
Politicians have too little of imagination about everything..from nuclear-energy to health, from infrastructure to education.
Imagination is like a talent and can be developed through practice.
Well-traveled people seem to have enhanced imaginations.. they can imagine the world better through other people’s eyes/perspectives. Interior designers who have seen lots of different homes are better at imagining how to furnish your empty house. They can imagine better.
So, I think it’s entirely feasible to change people’s skills at imagining.
I guess, there should be at least one class on imagination in every school. Students would polish upon their imagination skills. The cource should include tools of critical thinking to curb excess imagination, learn to recognize and suppress their own biases so they can imagine things outside their social box. All this helps in out-of-the-box thinking...lateral thinking you know.
This won’t happen, but imagining this makes me imagine more and feel happy.
Researchers, probably could come up with some hypothetical questions to test people’s baseline willingness to imagine things.
So, what's your IQ (Imagination Quotient)?
Update: 19-Oct-2007
As a head start, can you attribute imagination to happiness?
Just imagine..
