What If?

Between reading the world and trying to get through every Booker Prize winner, I am also reading a very amusing book called ‘What if?’ by Randall Munroe. It bills itself as serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions. It certainly lives up to its billing.

Whilst some of the questions are indeed absurd, it made me think that ‘What if?’ is probably one of the most important questions that mankind has ever asked.

What if I go over there? What if I put this in my mouth? What if I put these two substances together? What if I try to heat up these rocks? What if I poke this bear with a stick?

The what if question has pushed humanity to great achievements and enormous disasters yet, without it we would not be the species that we are. It is our need to challenge that drives us forward and it is those that question that really make the changes to the way we live our lives. Those who try to answer the questions also have a huge role to play, as do those who follow those questioning the way things are.

This means that there are no absurd questions. However strange they may seem they challenge our understanding which leads to improved knowledge, which opens up new frontiers. Many of our greatest discoveries have come through accident and failure. 

Thought experiment is just as important as physical experiment. In these days of ludicrous claims made on social media, it is hard to know what is true and what is not. Perhaps if everyone was a bit more challenging in what they believe the world may be a better place. What if what I am reading is wrong? What if it is all made up? What if that person isn’t really on my side?

What if we ask what if more often?

Perhaps we are not homo sapiens after all but rather homo interrogatio. What if we changed the way we think about ourselves?