On agency

Second only to creativity, agency is the key ingredient that fuels our innovation engine. Hence innovators should develop a solid grasp of their own agency, and that of others. Today, I start a series of posts that will explore the concept of agency, what it is, what it is not. To achieve that goal, the series will look at the vast diversity agents, what they have in common, and what makes an agent an agent.

How we got to where we are

Thinking of the distant past, the numbers are staggering. In order to grasp the relative pace of the long-term developments, it helps to condense the entire history since the Big Bang into one single year: imagine 13.8 billion years boiled down to 365 days.

The human world

Embedded within the animate world, the human world took shape a mere 300,000 years ago with the arrival of Homo Sapiens. In this world, things are made, deliberately.

The animate world

Nested within the inanimate world, the animate world came to life (quite literally) roughly 3.8 billion years ago. Into this world, things are born.

The inanimate world

The inanimate world came into existence a good 13.8 billion years ago, right with the Big Bang. In this world, things just exist.