What if we could eat healthy without consuming of any living being, plants included? What if you could mountain bike on Mars? What if Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak could actual exist? What if ‘advanced’ civilizations never oppress? What if you could print whatever material goods you needed, such as clothing, furniture and food? Aha, you might say, this wraps back to the first question.

You might ask: Why should we care? In essence, questions such as these are the basis of science fiction. And why should people heed science fiction? In the words of historian Yuval Noah Harari, SF is the most important genre.

From his book  21 Lessons for the 21st Century: Art plays a key role in shaping people’s view of the world, and in the twenty-first century science fiction is arguably the most important genre of all, for it shapes how most people understand things like AI, bioengineering and climate change.

Here, I will probe what-if questions as an exploration of possibilities. These could be of the past, such as: Could a pre-human civilization have existed? Or we could explore the present, for instance: Why haven’t crewed missions yet returned to the Moon? Consider that the Apollo 11 landing occurred only sixty-six years after the Wright Flyer first flew. Finally, for the future, will another sentient being supplant our present-day human species?

Every month, I will post my thoughts related to a particular question, such as those listed above. My intent is to offer similar topics monthly. To start, let’s ask: What if nobody wrote science fiction?

Peter Spasov. Last updated Monday February 24, 2025