Is the Cognitive Fusion Reactor (ITER-8) an essentially imaginary initiative?
Any response to such a question would itself raises the question of the role of imagination in the construction of social reality in an emerging knowledge society. For any initiative to be viable, significant and successful in some measure, it must necessarily have an imaginative, if not imaginary, dimension. It is this that is the focus of image management — now essential to the viability of social undertakings in a a world dependent on the communications media. As to whether it is “essentially” imaginary, this would again depend on understandings of “essential”. Archetypal, atemporal patterns governing social processes may be fruitfully understood as essentially imaginary attractors (as attractive dimensions of culture and identity), whether or not they are “only” imaginary. Furthermore it is important to bear in mind that in this context ITER is understood to stand for Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing — as discussed in the clarifying documents.
