Working definition. Contemporaneity is not simply being current. It is the difficult coexistence of many times, histories, speeds, and expectations within one present.
Inherited meaning
The contemporary once meant what belongs to the same time. Art and cultural thought complicated it by showing that a present is never singular: inherited worlds persist, uneven development divides experience, and anticipated futures act on people now.
Meaning in the imagination economy
AI is described as if one universal future were arriving everywhere at once. In reality, people meet it from radically different infrastructures, labour conditions, traditions, and risks. A philosophy after AI must remain contemporary by holding these unequal presents together.
What changes in practice
Ask “current for whom?” Place frontier capability beside ordinary conditions, historical memory, and slower institutions. Design transitions that respect the multiple times people already inhabit.