Converting "Could" to "Should"

 “To be or not to be, that is the question”, is a quote that everyone is familiar with in some form or the other. For me personally, this quote asks an important question, viz- “Could it happen?” and follows it up with one of the most interesting questions I’ve ever come across- “Should it happen?” This brings me, in my usual roundabout way to the discussion I hope to have with you as you pursue this article, a discussion on the word “speculation” and specifically, speculative fiction.

 Could dragons exist? Should time travel be possible? Is there alien life and could someone be trying to establish contact with us, or are we alone?

 The above paragraph are the questions a tween me kept asking my father, one of the most accomplished engineers I have ever seen. These questions were born of the fire in my belly which was ignited when I read Isaac Asimov for the first time and in particular his short story “Robot AL-76 Goes Astray”. The Three Laws of Robotics fascinated me- how could you create a machine capable of being able to obey laws, of existing to serve or to carry out tasks that humans could do? Could this machine love? Could this machine know hate? Could this machine…? Should this machine…?

 Anyone who has been following the news or checking social media is aware of the SAG AFTRA controversy and I for one, (as an amateur writer) find myself strongly in the camp of those on strike. I am elated that their terms ended up being met. But it prompted in me the desire to pen this, (on a word processing software, to be uploaded to a server hosted under Google’s umbrella. Yes, I am aware of how sci fi I sound, of how speculative fiction-ish I sound, of how dated I sound and of how abnormal this would seem to someone from the past).

 Humans are a remarkable species and their imagination knows no bounds. Since the discovery of fire, and the invention of the wheel, humans have never looked back. All of us at some point, have wondered about the lines at the top of this post- and some of us have been influenced by them, and created- converted the could to the should and in doing so made room for more could.

 I am often told engineers are not creative and am painfully aware of the rivalry that exists betwixt science and the arts.  My only statement here is that everything you see around you was once nothing but lines on paper. Everything. Let that sink in for a bit.

 Here is the thing see, here is why according to me, we need to keep converting could to should- we need to keep creating, we need to keep being curious and we need to keep learning without fear. Rabindranath dreamt of a utopia in his poem and said as much- “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high/Where knowledge is free” …

 

And to think that this writeup was inspired by a simple list of books, all of them falling under speculative fiction and suddenly some cog in my brain started to turn and now here we are, 550 odd words into this rant and I don’t even know what I’m saying at this point and so I’ll just leave you with a little T.S. Eliot

 

“Do I dare disturb the universe?”

 The Bilge Master