"It's the best time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong"

My favorite line from Arcadia, a 1993 play by Tom Stoppard, the incredibly smart and witty British playwright and writer who passed away this week at 88. Funnily enough, Arcadia is not mentioned in his BBC obituary (link), but it is a play beloved by many scientists, especially complexity scientists, as it weaves scientific concepts like chaos theory and the second law of thermodynamics into its narrative, using them as metaphors for human behavior and the nature of knowledge. It is a play about intellectual discovery and how the pursuit of knowledge can overturn established ideas.

Thomasina Coverly, a witty and curious young woman in the early 19th century, is fascinated by scientific and mathematical ideas. She says this line at a time when she is beginning to question the world around her and realizing that many of her assumptions are incorrect. Her journey is one of learning how to ask questions.

Her quest is incredibly relevant to the world we live in today. At this point, I want to emphasize that her line is one I cherish as a scientist, not as a father, partner, friend or citizen. There is much to be worried about. But for scientists, if we know how to ask questions, we now have tools to explore the frontiers of human knowledge.

Farewell, Sir Tom.

'Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else' (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Tom Stoppard, 1966)