Guy Reams (00:00.92)
This is day 119, figment of imagination. There exists a realm untouched by machines, one that remains distinctly, unequivocally human. The power to create something from nothing. A mere figment of our imagination. A thought with no physical counterpart. An idea shaped in the unseen spaces of our minds. What does figment mean, actually?
The phrase a figment of your imagination traces back to the Latin word figmentum, meaning something formed or fashioned, which is derived from the word fingere, meaning to shape or to invent. A figment is not simply an illusion or a mistake of perception. It's something crafted. It is an act of creation, however fleeting or insubstantial it may seem.
The imagination is not just a place of fantasy or escape. It is the very foundation of progress. Everything that has ever been built, designed, or written was once nothing but a figment in someone's mind. A dream before it became reality.
This is because of the concept of the not. What is it about human consciousness that actually allows for this idea of an imagination? Why do we possess the ability to conceive of things that do not exist? One theory lies in our understanding of what we call the not. Unlike other species, we do not simply react to what is, we ponder what is not. We see a landscape and imagine a city where there is none.
We hear silence and invent music. We look at blank canvas and see a painting before the brush ever touches the surface. This ability to conceptualize what is not there is the foundation of all human creativity. This is our superpower. This is what sets us apart. So we need to protect space for us to create. And yet we are in danger of losing this. The modern world inundates us with constant input.
Guy Reams (02:13.747)
endless streams of images, videos, sounds, all created by other people. Instead of shaping our own thoughts, we consume the creations of someone else's imagination. We scroll, we watch, we listen, but do we take time to think? To create, we must first allow ourselves the space to do so. True creativity does not emerge from distraction, but from the quiet. Free time is not wasted time, it is the soil
which ideas can grow. We must not rob ourselves of the one thing that makes us unique, our ability to think for ourselves, by spending all of our time staring at artificial things. Let your mind wander, embrace solitude, give yourself the freedom to form thoughts unshaped by external influence. For in that space, in the quiet corners of your own mind, the next great idea, the next figment, is just waiting to be born.