Working definition. Zero is both a number and a structural condition: the point where something ceases to constrain choice in the way it did before.
Inherited meaning
The mathematical zero made absence calculable and transformed systems of number. Economics and engineering use “near zero” for quantities whose remaining size matters less than the behavioural shift caused by their collapse.
Meaning in the imagination economy
The imagination economy begins near zero: not because generation consumes no money, time, labour, or energy, but because the marginal cost of another competent artifact becomes too small to remain the organising bottleneck. At that threshold, abundance changes the question from “Can we make it?” to “Which possibility deserves to exist?”
What changes in practice
Use zero as a diagnostic, not a slogan. Identify the unit whose marginal cost collapsed, the costs that remain hidden, and the new constraint created by abundance. Never confuse cheap production with consequence-free production.