Working definition. Wonder is the experience of encountering more reality than one’s current explanations can contain.
Inherited meaning
Philosophical traditions place wonder near the beginning of inquiry; children and artists know it as the moment the ordinary becomes strange enough to see again. Wonder differs from spectacle: spectacle captures attention, while wonder deepens it.
Meaning in the imagination economy
AI can generate novelty without end, producing astonishment that fades as quickly as it arrives. Wonder is slower and more relational. It does not ask only what a system can do, but what the encounter reveals about language, intelligence, humanity, and worlds not yet noticed.
What changes in practice
Follow surprise with a better question. Return to overlooked materials and ordinary lives. Protect encounters whose value is not immediate output, and notice whether curiosity grows after the effect wears off.