Jules Verne once remarked, ‘Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.’

 Let us contemplate why humans, self-proclaimed as ‘the lord of creation,’ reign supreme on Earth.
 
When pondering what sets humans apart from other beings, the mastery of fire and tools, the production of food, and the possession of intelligence come to mind. Yet, none of these are exclusive privileges of humanity.
 
For instance, certain birds of prey in Australia drop burning sticks into grasslands to start fires, catching small animals fleeing the flames. Chimpanzees and crows are known to use simple tools. In terms of food production, leaf-cutting ants in Central and South America cultivate fungi with harvested leaves, possessing a food production system worthy of being called agriculture.
 
What about intelligence? Lions hunt in packs, and dolphins learn tricks from humans. These behaviors are based on learning from experience and require the ability to share information and communicate. Although there is a difference in complexity compared to humans, it is certain that intelligence exists there.
 
So, what is the unique ability that only humans possess?
I believe it is ‘imagination.’
 
When you try to take a dog to the vet, it strongly resists. It seems to ‘imagine’ what will happen to it, but this is thought to be due to memory. Dogs that have not experienced the pain of vaccinations do not resist going to the vet. However, humans can infer the course of events from the surrounding situation and hearsay, even without experience or memory.
 
Humans can create entirely new things that have never existed before from almost zero, with only a few clues or scattered pieces. This is something other creatures cannot do. Not only science and technology but also literature, painting, and music are achievements only humans can accomplish. Imagination is at the root of these. Concepts without form, such as philosophy and religion, are also gifts of human imagination.
 
When humans acquired the universal tool called ‘imagination,’ they became ‘the lord of creation.’
 
‘Imagination’ is also a guide to the future.
 
‘Tout ce qu’un homme est capable d’imaginer, d’autres hommes seront capables. (Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.)’ is a phrase attributed to Jules Verne, the French novelist known for works like ‘Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.’ Indeed, humans have realized many of the things they have imagined. Imagination, combined with emotions such as curiosity and the desire for dominance, leads to competition, development, and expansion, eventually resulting in innovation. Although this is a rather rough summary, the realization of imagination is essentially like that.
 
For example, Doraemon’s ‘The Anywhere Door’ is realized as VR, and the ‘Translation Jelly’ is realized as a smartphone app. Some of his ‘secret tools’ imagined by Fujiko F. Fujio, which excited readers, have already become reality.
 
About 100 years ago, there were no passenger planes (operational since 1919) or synthetic fibers (invented in 1935). Telephones were only used by a few, and there were no international calls. Naturally, there were no mobile phones, PCs, or the internet. People had no way of knowing what was happening on the other side of the world. Japan was in the late Taisho period, and the average life expectancy was half of what it is now. It can be seen that the world was completely different from today. Human imagination is filled with immense energy that can transform the world.
 
By observing ‘that has already happened’ we can see the future it brings. Drucker called this ‘the future that has already happened.’ What we imagine is also ‘that has already happened,’ and therefore, the future that will come naturally becomes visible. A future that we have not imagined will not suddenly appear before us. Time is a continuous straight line and is always an extension of the present. Even if we vaguely sense that ‘it seems likely to happen,’ we can only see it dimly because we are not facing the future that will come as a reality.
 
Imagining the future directly influences our current actions and creates the future that will come. By closely observing the present and concretely imagining the future, we can recognize the challenges we will face as already existing phenomena. Therefore, we can start preparing for them as soon as possible. Imagination can be said to be a simulation of the future.
 
Whatever it may be, the future will surely come. We cannot turn away saying, ‘This wasn’t supposed to happen.’ If the future is sure to come, we want to welcome a bright future with a smile. To achieve that, we must act proactively, concretely, quickly, and collaboratively.
 
Let’s start by imagining.

 
 

Greetings, I am Kuzei Ryosei, a novelist who delves into a diverse array of genres, spanning from the historical to the contemporary. My aim is to enchant readers with tales that breathe life into history and explore the intricate issues of modern society. I warmly invite you to reach out to me.