Everything we don’t know

The mystery of individual experience

We often assume that others see colors the same way we do, but there's no definitive way to confirm it. While we've assigned names to colors to facilitate communication, we can't guarantee that what one person sees as 'blue' is experienced identically by someone else.

Radically different sensory worlds

It may be that people experience colors or sounds in ways that are fundamentally different from one another. What one person sees as red could be another's blue, and there's no reliable method to verify such inner experiences. This opens up the unsettling possibility that each of us is living in a completely isolated sensory reality.

Bizarre creatures

Even in the small percentage of the ocean we've explored, we've encountered surreal creatures like the blobfish and barreleye fish (pictured). Their strange appearances suggest that much weirder life forms could exist in unexplored depths. The ocean truly is one of Earth's final frontiers.

Invention vs. discovery

Yet, the existence of fire raises a profound question: did humans invent it, or simply discover it? Fire exists naturally, but harnessing and controlling it took deliberate effort. This is yet another version of the chicken-and-egg debate that remains on the fringes of the unknown.

Who invented music?

Birds sing, whales sing, and even frogs croon. If music is defined as pleasant, structured sound, then nature itself might be its true inventor. This complicates the idea that humans created music, and suggests that we may have only discovered and refined it.

Animals

But primates like chimpanzees use tools in strikingly human ways, such as using sticks to collect food in an exhibit of behaviors that blur the lines between human and animal capabilities. Chimps also show personalities and empathy in ways that indicate a significant depth of emotional and social intelligence.

The afterlife

We know incredibly little about what happens before birth or after death. Life's temporal boundaries remain elusive, and though we can extensively study the brain, the essence of consciousness and its origin still evade scientific explanation.

The enigma of architecture

Stonehenge, with its massive upright stones, has baffled experts for centuries. Theories abound (from Druid rituals to burial grounds), but no definitive evidence explains how or why it was built. Its purpose remains a captivating historical mystery.

The placebo effect

Another aspect of existence that sits in the realm of blissful ignorance is the placebo effect. When medical patients believe they are receiving real treatment, their brains trigger real healing responses, even if the treatment is actually inert.

The many abilities of the mind

The placebo effect and self-affirmation are just glimpses into the mind's potential. Given how powerful these phenomena are, one can't help but wonder what other abilities the human brain holds that we have yet to uncover or understand.

The persistence of time

Time affects anything and everything in the universe that has mass and seems linear from our perspective, yet scientists remain unsure what time truly is. Was it invented as a concept, or is it an intrinsic part of the universe that we merely discovered and named?

Complex emotions behind crying

Similarly, crying is linked to emotional processing and physical regulation, activating the parasympathetic nervous system. But while it is often seen as a sign of sadness, it also accompanies joy, which simply highlights how little humanity actually knows about complex emotions.

The fragility of scientific consensus

Scientific truths often evolve or are disproven over time. Once, Earth was believed to be the universe's center, and even today some fringe theories like the Hollow Earth idea persist. Scientific understanding is both powerful and fallible, and perhaps some of these unknowns will be answered in time.