But What If We're Wrong?

Thinking about the present as if it were the past

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  • 3.6 (9 ratings)
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Last edited by MARC Bot
June 30, 2025 | History

But What If We're Wrong?

Thinking about the present as if it were the past

  • 3.6 (9 ratings)
  • 18 Want to read
  • 12 Have read

"We live in a culture of casual certitude. This has always been the case, no matter how often that certainty has failed. Though no generation believes there's nothing left to learn, every generation unconsciously assumes that what has already been defined and accepted is (probably) pretty close to how reality will be viewed in perpetuity. And then, of course, time passes. Ideas shift. Opinions invert. What once seemed reasonable eventually becomes absurd, replaced by modern perspectives that feel even more irrefutable and secure--until, of course, they don't. But What If We're Wrong? visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past.^

Chuck Klosterman asks questions that are profound in their simplicity: How certain are we about our understanding of gravity? How certain are we about our understanding of time? What will be the defining memory of rock music, five hundred years from today? How seriously should we view the content of our dreams? How seriously should we view the content of television? Are all sports destined for extinction? Is it possible that the greatest artist of our era is currently unknown (or--weirder still--widely known, but entirely disrespected)? Is it possible that we "overrate" democracy? And perhaps most disturbing, is it possible that we've reached the end of knowledge? Kinetically slingshotting through a broad spectrum of objective and subjective problems, But What If We're Wrong? is built on interviews with a variety of creative thinkers--George Saunders, David Byrne, Jonathan Lethem, Kathryn Schulz, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Greene, Junot Díaz, Amanda Petrusich, Ryan Adams,^

Nick Bostrom, Dan Carlin, and Richard Linklater, among others--interwoven with the type of high-wire humor and nontraditional analysis only Klosterman would dare to attempt. It's a seemingly impossible achievement: a book about the things we cannot know, explained as if we did. It's about how we live now, once "now" has become "then.""--

"But What If We're Wrong? visualizes the contemporary world as it will appear to those who'll perceive it as the distant past"--

Klosterman visualizes how our contemporary world will appear to those who will perceive it as the distant past. In doing so, he interviews a variety of creative thinkers to help explain the things we can not know, and explores how ideas and opinions shift over generations.

Publish Date
Publisher
Blue Rider Press
Language
English
Pages
272

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Previews available in: English

Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Published in
New York

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
909.83/12
Library of Congress
E169.12 .K5548 2016, E169.12.K5548 2016, CB158 .K56 2016

The Physical Object

Pagination
272 p. ;
Number of pages
272

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL26359393M
ISBN 13
9780399184123
LCCN
2016023103
OCLC/WorldCat
921864995
Goodreads
27068734

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL17762160W

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June 30, 2025 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
March 7, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
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December 17, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
August 5, 2017 Created by Darby Added new book.