Questions No One Knows the Answers to

In the first of a new TED-Ed series designed to catalyze curiosity, TED Curator Chris Anderson shares his boyhood obsession with quirky questions that seem to have no answers.

(Music)

On a typical day at school,

endless hours are spent

learning the answers to questions.

But right now, we'll do the opposite.

We're going to focus on questions where you can't learn the answers,

because they're unknown.

I used to puzzle about a lot of things as a boy.

For example, what would it feel like

to be a dog?

Do fish feel pain? How about insects?

Was the Big Bang just an accident?

And is there a God?

And if so, how are we so sure that it's a He and not a She?

Why do so may innocent people and animals suffer terrible things?

Is there really a plan for my life?

Is the future yet to be written,

or is it already written

and we just can't see it? But then, do I have free will?

Who am I, anyway? Am I just a biological machine?

But then, why am I conscious?

What is consciousness? Will robots become conscious one day?

I mean, I kind of assumed

that some day I would be told the answers to all these questions.

I mean, someone must know, right?

Huh. Guess what? No one knows.

Most of those questions puzzle me more now than ever.

But diving into them is exciting

because it takes you to the edge of knowledge,

and you never know what you'll find there.

So, two questions to kick off this series,

questions that no one on Earth knows the answer to ...

Text: How many universes are there?

Why can't we see evidence of alien life?