Working definition. Inhabitation is the act of living within a form long enough for its hidden demands and possibilities to become felt.
Inherited meaning
Architecture distinguishes a building as object from a place as lived. Phenomenology likewise reminds us that humans do not observe the world from nowhere; we encounter it through embodied situations, habits, histories, and relationships.
Meaning in the imagination economy
AI makes it easy to picture spectacular futures from the outside. Inhabitation asks a harder question: what is an ordinary Tuesday like inside this future? Who has agency, what requires care, where does attention go, and how can the arrangement be changed? A positive future is not an attractive image. It is a world people can enter without surrendering their dignity.
What changes in practice
Turn scenarios into days, roles, rituals, maintenance, conflicts, and exits. Let affected people walk through them. Revise any future that works only from the viewpoint of its designer.