Working definition. Consent is meaningful permission under conditions of comprehension, agency, and genuine alternatives. It is a relationship that must remain revisable, not a box checked once.
Inherited meaning
Political thought grounds legitimate power in the consent of the governed; medicine and research developed informed consent to protect people from being made into means. Digital systems weakened the practice into unread agreements where refusal often means exclusion.
Meaning in the imagination economy
AI complicates consent because data, likeness, labour, and decisions move through systems people cannot easily see. A positive future cannot be built by asking people to approve an abstraction. Consent must travel with the use: people need to know what is changing, contest it, and withdraw without disproportionate cost.
What changes in practice
Make the choice legible at the moment it matters. Offer a real non-AI path where stakes justify it. Treat changed purpose, scale, or audience as a reason to ask again.