'But What if We're Wrong?' is a book of original, reported, interconnected piece
s that speculate on the likelihood that many of our universally accepted, deeply
engrained cultural and scientific beliefs will someday seem absurd. Looking at
our present-day society as we consider past civilisations, Klosterman points to
a profound and simple idea: what if one day our thinking is as hopelessly outdat
ed as that of that Middle Ages? Using a range of original interviews with a wide
variety of thinkers, including George Saunders, David Byrne, Jonathan Lethem, A
lex Ross, Kathryn Schulz and Neil deGrasse Tyson, 'But What If We're Wrong?' mak
es an irreverent and thought provoking critique of our assumptions: How certain
is our understanding of gravity? What do we really know about time? What will be
the defining cultural moment, 500 years from now? What contemporary film and li
terature will be canonised and celebrated in centuries to come? (How, in fact, i
s science and history constructed?) Is it possible that we over-rate democracy a
nd freedom when we claim it is a universal value? Most disturbingly of all, Klos
terman asks if we have reached the 'end of new knowledge' itself.
