Working definition. Play is voluntary experimentation within a temporary frame. It permits surprise because failure does not immediately threaten identity or survival.
Inherited meaning
Children, artists, scientists, and cultures use play to rehearse roles, test rules, and discover forms that planned activity could not reach. Play is not the opposite of seriousness; it is a serious way of learning without prematurely fixing the outcome.
Meaning in the imagination economy
Generative tools make playful variation abundant, but metrics and productivity narratives can colonise that freedom instantly. Play matters after AI because it lets people encounter capability before deciding what it is for—and imagine identities not yet recognised by existing institutions.
What changes in practice
Create sessions with no shipping requirement, separate discovery from evaluation, and end by naming what became newly thinkable rather than what was produced.