In Star Trek, Captain James T. Kirk would close his voice-over at the beginning of each episode with the phrase “to boldly go where no man has gone before.” These words inspired a generation of engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and designers—including women and people of color who took greater risks to achieve success. They also inspired some people to envision a world living in peace and striving to understand its place in the larger scope of the universe.

Star Trek was the brainchild of Gene Roddenberry. Unlike many creators of science fiction, who tend to look at the future through the lens of the present, Roddenberry imagined an entirely different universe, one where people have put their differences aside and come together for the betterment of all. In contrast to his contemporaries, instead of asking, “What can we do?” he posited a different question: “What should we do?” For Roddenberry, it was important to imagine not only what society could look like once people lived together in peace, but also a future based on scientific concepts that were somewhat plausible extensions of existing 1960s technology.

As with Roddenberry’s Star Trek, virtually everything in our lives outside of nature itself was conceived through someone’s imagination. Through the art of abstraction and elaboration, imagination allows one to visualize that which doesn’t exist. Unlike creativity, which is connecting what already exists in new ways, or innovation, which is the useful application of that creativity, imagination is the underlying current or mental “flow” that ultimately moves ideas through the creative and innovative processes.