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RosieG

What would the world be like today if no one had ever asked "WHAT IF"?

Science Fiction is based entirely on WHAT IF. Aren't all inventions based on WHAT IF? Some say some say that asking "WHAT IF" is invalid. I say they don't understand what they are saying nor do they have any vision or creativity or sense of what it takes to make "advances".

WHAT IF I were to try this? WHAT IF  I were to redesign this? WHAT IF this could cut cost by 50%? WHAT IF this could change the way we all live for the better?

WHAT IF we had never WHAT IFFED? Well there would be no computers of cellphone or telephones or radios or or automobiles. For starters. Those who ask WHAT IF may not be the creators thereof but they are often the catalyst for others to ask WHAT IF and then find out by doing and trying and investigating and researching and doing something about it.

My opinion of course. What's yours? Would YOU prefer a world without WHAT IF?

Posted - March 4, 2021
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Responses


  • 3684
    Real science is based on "What If?", too, but is based on curiosity about real, observable things and testable evidence.

    The difference is that science fiction is a flight of imagination although it is better if the science and  engineering represented at least seems a credible projection of current knowledge.

    It is intriguing that lot of things in past science-fiction have become more or less real, at least in principle or similarity. That's where the authors have not tried to break the Laws of Physics; or have written a story that is not science-fiction as such but is set in a future that has developed something already known.

    A classic example of the latter is from George Orwell's 1984. Although we do not (yet...) have the compulsory two-way television in our homes, with its ability for the sort of conversation Winston Smith has with a bureaucrat criticising him, we  now have the eavesdropping carried out by so-called "smart speakers" like Alexa.

    I have recently read a far-future novel, Robert Harris' The Second Sleep, set 800 years from now, that could be taken as an opposite of science-fiction - it asks "What If?"  but the other way round. 
      March 5, 2021 3:11 AM MST
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  • 113301
    Apologies but I do not comprehend what you mean by "the other way around". Would you mind clarifying it for me please? Right now it seems nonsensical which I know you aren't. Thank you Durdle.
      March 5, 2021 4:03 AM MST
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  • 3684
    Sorry about the delay!

    I didn't want to give away too much about the story, but most future-fiction asks more or less two "What If" questions.

    One is the more political "What If" - society has developed along certain lines, such as collapse or becoming huge totalitarian regimes (e.g. George Orwell's 1984.

    The other is the scientific "What If" followed by computers, automation, warfare, space-travel, medicine or whatever having continued to advance. Like Star Trek.

    Some literature assumes both.

    By the other way round, I mean "What If" things go the other way.  The Second Sleep asks "What If" all that advance had not only stopped but had regressed by about three centuries with respect to our time; somewhere between our era and that of the narrative. The story is set in an England 800 years hence but having become a theocracy as advanced socially and technically as about the early 18C, and we readers see that future world and glimpses of its history, through its inhabitants' eyes.  
      March 14, 2021 5:19 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    Sounds fascinating. Well a mugger said that "what if" questions are invalid. I think that is a preposterous thing to say. All creativity begins with WHAT IF. If we don't wonder or ponder we can't advance or make any progress. Now of course there some debate about what constitutes PROGRESS. Those who will always be CONFEDERATES in their hearts think today's world is less than it used to be when there were slaves and institutional white supremacy which was unquestioned. They are all REACTIONARIES. They want to go back to those good old days of slavery and lynchings and women not having any voice or vote. Their ideal world is not the here and now but "way back when". A pox on them and their ilk and their progeny. Difference of opinion. That will always be. Us versus them. That too is universal. Why that is I will never understand. We are all in the same boat heading for the same ultimate destination. Why not row together to ease the journey? I'll ask. Thank you for your reply Durdle. This post was edited by RosieG at March 15, 2021 3:29 AM MDT
      March 15, 2021 3:28 AM MDT
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