Sometimes it seems that everything in the known universe has already been comprehensively explored, discovered, labeled, mapped, dissected, cross-examined, catalogued, abbreviated, acronymified, domain-named, and proffered at the low low price. “Operators are standing by!”
Google Maps has rendered naked every square mile of the planet’s ample surface. Wikipedia has ambitiously aggregated the entire stockpile of all information worth ambitiously aggregating. The internet stands as a record of all human pronouncements, complete with their astounding truths and falsehoods, and artificial intelligence has emerged as a seemingly superior process for ideation.
The world appears to be a lot less mysterious than it used to be. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Or so it was said. By King Solomon. Some 3,000 years ago.
Allow me to respond in no uncertain terms: I punch this idea square between the eyes.
I reject it, not just because it is disheartening, disabling, and oppressive, but mainly because empirical evidence shows it to be a boldfaced lie. So much of the world, as it reveals itself through your experiences, moment by moment, is as yet unknown. That is because so much of life’s experience seems to be unknowable. Life’s mystery is perpetuated by life’s unpredictability.
I am here to say emphatically, the world is not a fait accompli. It is not pre-fixed, pre-determined or pre-set in concrete. The world continues to reveal itself with ever new developments and discoveries, minute by minute, day by day. And you, my friend, you influence how it turns out. Yes, you do.
Why do I say this? Three reasons.
First, the things that are known to be known and the things that are known to be unknown are, at best, guideposts.
So often throughout history, humanity has been astonished to discover that some of the truisms previously upheld as Absolute Truths (with a capital A and a capital T) were, at best, relative truths or, at worst, absolute falsehoods. Many things that were once immutable turned out to be… humblingly mutable. Just ask Gallileo or Copernicus or Einstein or Darwin.
History is chock full of events that were previously believed to be impossibilities until someone came along and – poof! – they reminded the world that impossible can sometimes be made possible. Thank you, Thomas Edison, Amerlia Erhart, Roger Bannister, Hellen Keller, Alan Turing and all you pioneers too numerous to name.
Like the universe spanning outward in all directions from the seminal Big Bang, the field of what’s possible is perpetually expanding.
Second, the way that a person interacts with her surroundings gives rise to new and unpredictable developments.
If the same person sets out across town every day for 1,000 days, none of these journeys would be exactly identical. Likewise, if 1,000 people set out across town on the same day, none of these journeys would be exactly identical. Each iteration of the same journey births uncountable new interactions, which themselves reverberate to create still other new ineractions. Call it the Butterfly Effect, the Domino Effect, the Ripple Effect, or anything else you may want to call it. The world is unpredictable, and your presence in it makes it even more so.
Third, a fait-accompli world is just boring. I would much rather live in a world that contains mysteries, uncertainties, and revelations.
Some of the greatest art was created by people who had no idea what they were doing. They didn’t realize what artists should do or should not do. They just did. They belched out a bunch of art, and that art happened to resonate with other people.
Science has also brought the world plenty of accidental discoveries. Penicilin and X-rays are just two that come to mind.
It’s easy to break the rules when you don’t know the rules exist. Ignorance is bliss.
A pre-fixed world implies that you have no choice in the matter, that you are just living out your role, as everyone is, in some dystopian choreography. What’s the point?
Look at it this way. Whether you believe the world has nothing original to offer, or you believe the world is filled with plenty of possible discoveries, sooner or later you will encounter disappointment. That is inevitable. What is not inevitable, however, is how you react to this disappointment. If you believe the world is predetermined, this disappointment will serve to reinforce your powerlesness. On the other hand, if you believe the world is influencable — that is, if you believe you possess some form of agency to be able to affect change — this disappointment will serve as a reference point, a booby trap, a pitfall, something to be respected and avoided in the future.
For one person, disappointment screams powerlessness; for another, it screams power.
There nothing more stifling to the imagination than the notion of a pre-determined world. It robs you of your wonder and your curiosity and your hunger to find secrets that nobody else knows. These pursuits are good and worthwhile and a hell of a lot of fun!
So, here’s what I think you should do the next time someone complains that things are so predictable. You should punch them.
Punch them wherever you choose, and do so as softly or forcefully as the situation dictates. Don’t get yourself arrested, just get their attention. If you don’t want to punch them, then at least give them a good, pointed poke.
And then, when they look at you incredulously, mouth agape, eyes demanding an explanation, just ask them, “So, did you predict that too?”