Working definition. Zeitgeist is the spirit of a time: not everything happening in an era, but the shared sensibility that makes some ideas feel inevitable and others almost impossible to articulate.
Inherited meaning
German philosophy gave the term its historical weight, linking thought and culture to the conditions of their age. Popular use often reduces it to trend. A zeitgeist is deeper: it is the background through which trends become recognisable as timely.
Meaning in the imagination economy
AI is both technology and zeitgeist. It concentrates contemporary hopes for abundance, fears of replacement, faith in scale, and uncertainty about human distinctiveness. The imagination economy tries to understand this atmosphere without mistaking it for destiny.
What changes in practice
Ask which statements sound self-evident only because of the present moment. Compare them with other eras and cultures. Use the zeitgeist as evidence about collective desire—not as permission to follow it.