Limit is a word that comes from the latin word limes meaning boundary or frontier. In English the suffix -ation is used for forming nouns, denoting the outcome or result of some product or action. Limitation evokes the meaning of a restraint or a restricting rule or circumstance. Beyond means at or on the opposing side of a boundary, within the frontier, having progressed or achieved more than a specified stage or level.

What kinds of limitations are there? There appear to be internal limitations , like the physical and cognitive limits of my physiology. Or the limitations of my own mind, like self-perception or maturity. There appears to be external limitations too, like the physical limits of material properties, the resources available or the regenerative capacity of the environment to produce goods and absorb wastes. Or those temporal limits, the ones that place constraints on the timing or the longevity of phenomena. Each of these are limits set forth by the inexorable rearrangement of dispositional forces in the universe… limits of natural law, like the laws of physics. There are external supernatural limitations too; limits or boundaries established by the imaginations of people to carry on with the rules or protocols that establish the game that is being played by a society. Such as the ways in which I can be perceived or imagined by others, as well as the supernatural laws, like the laws of man.

These internal and external limits all derive their power of limitation from the imagination. Because, it is possible to transcend those limitations with the power of the imagination. It is possible that those limitations be denied their power as they are susceptible to reimagining.

The imagination of the whole of humanity is like so many water molecules cascading through the falls of civilization. Dashing against the rocks as they go, each encountering their own limitations. Flying out in all directions they branch off on a dizzying variety of paths. A myriad of droplets seeking their own way around their own limitation. Amorphous clouds of vapor will rise from the tumult carried away unseen upon unseen currents of hot air. Because all are taking the path of least resistance, a great many will careen together. Very similar to one another, this main stream will over time carve a deep rut; a path that cannot be escaped.

Of these things imagined, those that leave their mark, they become memes. Memes can be weak, never venturing far into the memeplex — the environment of memes. Or they can be supernaturally powerful, they can hijack imaginations, steer action and with it evolution. They could even halt it altogether! When I think of evolution I often think of the saying “survival of the fittest”. Not survival of the most ruthless, which I’ve often seen imagined. It means survival of the fittest — the fittest for something. The fittest for the environment survive, of course. The fittest, best fits with, or successfully integrates and maintains that integration with its environment and survives.

What is my environment if not the sum of all these imagined limitations. Those things that are imagined plus those things that cannot yet be imagined. Plus, those limitations that are just imaginary. Plus, those limitations that cannot yet be imagined around. The path beyond those limitations is the path beyond imagination. When people take the time to transcribe the imagination into grammar — write it down or draw it. It forces them to think about it in detail, to find the pertinent details and fill in any logical holes. The best way to learn about what is being imagined is to present it. They and others can then recognize it from its grammar, acknowledge it, and reconsider it again. They can take the next action in the knowledge action feedback loop, to reimagine.

Humanity moves beyond imagination when imaginings leave a mark in reality. When they are written down, hashed out and written down again. In this way, things are designed and things are built. It is especially effective when they are eventually removed from isolation and reintegrated into a large, cohesive whole. When that cohesive whole is openly shared, collaborated upon, and contributed back to; big things are designed and big things are built, in recursively-integrated epicycles of the knowledge action feedback loop.

Everything around me was manufactured through long and complicated chains of production. At each step of the process value was added; from the sourcing of raw materials to the refinement of feedstocks. From the input of feedstocks to the manufacturing and fabrication of component parts. The distribution of component parts converging elsewhere and accumulating as in-process inventory. From the integration and assembly of component parts to the packaging and advertising of a finished product. At the completion of production, a unit destined for purchase traveled a long and complicated chain of distribution, just as its component parts once did. At each step, ever more value was added. It arrived at a retailer, where it was shelved in a warehouse or an environmentally controlled store. Value was added there, as pedestrians peruse the merchandise and as they take the item from the shelf. Or, they browse a website from the comfort of their own location. They bring that product to the checkout and utilize even more value added systems from the financial services sector. The final value of all value added at steps along these long chains of production and distribution are ultimately recuperated, in full, at the moment of purchase.

The configuration of this modern economy is undoubtedly powerful. To survive, let alone thrive one must be undoubtedly smart. Despite the power and the intellect required of market participants, is the system itself smart? It seems to me, that a great deal of value leaves my possession in exchange for items of a consumable and decidedly fungible nature. It seems to me that my time is spent disproportionately in pursuit of the value by which to acquire these items. Items that it seems to me would be very easy to produce at a reduced cost at home; on my own, given the time and recipes. What would happen if a system were devised that produced these fungible consumables automatically, from basic feedstocks or entirely from scratch? What possibilities would suddenly become available? I would then have a much larger store of value for which I could acquire those items I cannot make at home. Or, I could reinvest that value and expand my own automated production capacity.