Working definition. Uncertainty is not simply missing information. It is the condition in which more than one future remains plausible and the limits of knowledge matter to the decision.
Inherited meaning
Statistics quantifies some uncertainty as probability, while philosophy and practical judgment address uncertainty that cannot be cleanly measured. Institutions often disguise both because confidence is rewarded more readily than epistemic honesty.
Meaning in the imagination economy
Generative fluency can make uncertain claims feel finished. At the same time, the social consequences of AI remain radically open. Uncertainty must therefore become a design material: something made visible, distributed fairly, and used to preserve options rather than a weakness edited out of the presentation.
What changes in practice
Separate knowns, estimates, assumptions, and unknowns. Match commitment to reversibility. Give confidence a source and horizon, and update decisions when the world supplies new evidence.