Writing The Fantastic Unknown

Let's write, just for the sake of it let's just tap away at the keys and see where it takes me… and then go back and edit what I've written because let's face it, you and I, this is going to be awful.

So, what to write about? The present, the past, the future? The unknown, the known? The fantastic, the mundane? Each subject is as worthy as the other, and in all honestly I probably know as much about each subject as I do the other (and seeing as The Unknown was a category, well that don't say much for what I know now does it?).

I know! I will talk about an amalgamation of a few of those subjects, I will choose "The Future", "The Unknown" and "The Fantastic", mix that in a bowl and lick the spoon.

So, Stephen from Derby University, who's specialist subject is The Fantastic Unknown Future, the time starts with your first question, and that question is… Whaaa?

Scary ain't it, I suppose that's why most of us only take life a day at a time, and a fair few of us spend most of the our time in the past or ignore the future for the pleasures, pains, trials and tribulations of the present. Spend some time in the Fantastic Unknown however and the possibilities are overwhelming, mind boggling, stupefying.

The expanse of possibilities, of choices and consequences are so many and so varied that most of us will look at the future and reduce it to something simpler, something less abundant, less overwhelming. A simple binary choice maybe… "stop or go", "stay or leave", try or do not try", "speak now or forever hold try peace".

The future, reduced to something so simple as a 'do/do not' choice seems manageable and controllable, but doesn't seem half as fantastic. A binary choice isn't a choice between anything and everything anymore, it's not full of wonder or awe, it's a fork in the road where the consequence of taking either path is a known outcome, each choice as measured and assured as the other.

What if life wasn't just a series of choices, each with a known outcome, each as predictable and controllable as the other? Oh wait… it's not. We may try to reduce the Fantastic Unknown to just that, but that is not what it is… however we try and trivialise the future it will always be fantastic, surprising, worrying and unknown.

So, let's write something, just for the sake of it, just tap away and see what happens. But be careful, because in life there is no going back to edit what you've written, you can only hope that your choice, now, makes sense then, but let's face it, you and I… you just don't know.