Unthinkable?
A Brief History of the Impossible

a notoriously bad track record of estimating how »impossible« something really is. In this talk, we'll jump into a time machine and go back, all the way to the onset of human civilization, and explore what we can learn from ancient and former »impossibilities« – for what we consider to be impossible today.

Note that this presentation is also the basis for my upcoming book, Unthinkable. If you’re interested, please feel free to subscribe to my newsletter for that project on its website, www.unthinkable.net.

Our world, today.

If we take a look out there, we see a lot of impossibilities: big, global ones and smaller, individual ones. How do we react to these? First of all: emotionally, often with fear, frustration, desperation, and guilt. And then, we do the next logical thing: nothing.

Much more, we do something else, something that makes us feel busy, but doesn’t really contribute to tackling the ‘impossible’. And it makes sense, it’s impossible, after all. Isn’t it?

Some problems simply make us run away — which makes the impossible really impossible to tackle, because if we don’t try, we can’t win. That’s why ‘impossible’ is such a dangerous judgement: it stops us from pushing further.

What if?

But what if ‘impossible’ isn’t a judgement for eternity? What if it’s just a feeling, not more than a quick, biased estimation of the current situation? Looking at all the things that are possible today, we can easily see that many of the things that we take for granted as almost natural, are, in fact, former impossibilities.

So, let’s take a journey through time, from the onset of civilisation to today and the future. Look for something that can serve us as a key to understanding our emotions when we are facing something ‘impossible’.

8000 BCE

Our journey begins in 8000 BCE, a critical turning point in human history. At this time, humanity transitioned from being hunters and gatherers to becoming farmers. This shift was monumental because it introduced the idea of the future. If we plant seeds today, tend to them, and have faith, something will grow tomorrow—an entirely new way of thinking. This newfound understanding led to the concept of home, a place worth staying because we now had something to wait for, something to grow.

Around this same time, an important invention came into existence: the brick, sun-dried and sturdy. Why hadn’t it been invented earlier? The answer is simple—it wasn’t necessary before. Nomadic people didn’t need bricks to carry around. This highlights a fundamental truth: even the best solutions are useless until the right problem arises.

Innovation:
A Puzzling Analogy

Think of innovation like a puzzle. You can’t place a piece in thin air—it needs to connect with what’s already there. The edge of the puzzle is the problem, and the solution must fit into it. This is true in all areas of progress, from the simplest tools to the most complex technologies. As we travel forward through time, we’ll see how each invention was not just a clever idea, but a response to a need, a problem that had finally appeared.

5000 BCE:
The Wheel, Writing, and Numbers

Fast forward to 5000 BCE, where humanity made several game-changing inventions: the wheel, writing, and the first numerical systems. Each of these innovations arose from the needs of early civilizations, which were growing more complex. Trade required wheels for transport, writing for record-keeping, and numbers to manage goods. The materials to create these inventions had always been there, but they only became useful when ‘fitting problems’ appeared. Once again, the puzzle metaphor fits—these innovations ‘docked’ onto the edge of the growing puzzle of human thinking, filling gaps that had finally been revealed – and creating new problems (a new border of the puzzle) along the way.

The Myth of the Impossible

One of the key lessons we learn from history is that what once seemed impossible often becomes routine. Take the invention of writing, for example. Could it have been invented earlier? Technically, yes. But there was no need for it. It wasn’t impossible, just unnecessary. The same can be said for many of today’s innovations that we take for granted.

Innovation as a Response to Change

As we continue our time travel, we arrive at ancient Greece and Rome, where new problems arose as people began living closer together in cities. These challenges sparked the creation of sewage systems, legal frameworks, and other civic innovations. Similarly, religion and mythology emerged as ways to explain the unexplainable, to offer comfort and understanding where knowledge fell short. Just as puzzle pieces begin with their edges, religious beliefs often established boundaries, beyond which lay the unknown.

The Role of Perspective

We all have blind spots—both in our vision and in how we perceive the world. These “situational blind spots” can prevent us from seeing new possibilities or better-fitting solutions. But if we step back and shift our perspective, we can often find a clearer view. This is why interdisciplinary collaboration is so valuable. Different viewpoints can reveal new connections, just like turning a puzzle piece to see if it fits in a different way.

15th Century: The Importance of Failure

Innovation doesn’t happen without failure. In fact, failure is essential. It’s through trial and error that we find the right pieces, the ones that fit perfectly. Think of famous moments in history, like the discovery that the Earth is round. It took centuries of false starts and corrections to get there, but each mistake brought humanity closer to the truth. Similarly, the invention of the rollable suitcase—something so obvious today—was delayed by outdated social norms. Innovation sometimes means questioning the pieces we’ve already laid down and being willing to replace them with better ones.

Innovation Accelerates itself:
1600 CE and Beyond

As we travel closer to the present day, we notice something important: the pace of innovation begins to accelerate. The more puzzle pieces we lay down, the easier it becomes to add more. Each new discovery builds on the last, allowing for more rapid progress. By the 1600s, scientific tools like the telescope and microscope had been invented, enabling humanity to see things previously invisible—both in the vastness of space and in the tiny world of cells. These tools opened up entirely new areas of the puzzle, making it possible to continue expanding our understanding of the world.

Sometimes, what's missing is obvious

Throughout history, many inventions and discoveries were made independently by multiple people at the same time. This happened because the “gap” in the puzzle was so clear that it was only a matter of time before someone filled it. Examples include the discovery of oxygen, the theory of evolution, and the invention of photography. When the time is right, and the problem is clear, solutions tend to appear simultaneously.

Also, science-fiction has long been a source of inspiration for innovation, from Jules Verne’s fantastical voyages to modern-day visions of artificial intelligence. These imaginative stories allow us to visualize possible futures and consider whether we want to pursue them. One example is Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who, after reading his own premature obituary describing him as the “merchant of death,” decided to change his legacy by establishing the Nobel Prize – for situations like illustrated above: connecting two pieces previously unconnected is often considered a huge leap in human progress.

Coming Home

So, what can we take away from this journey? First, we should focus less on glorifying solutions and more on understanding problems—they are the fertile ground from which innovation grows. Second, we need to be aware of our blind spots, especially within our comfort zones, and seek out diverse perspectives to help us see clearly. Third, we should embrace failure as a necessary part of the process. And finally, we don’t need to be geniuses to innovate. We simply need to stay curious, open-minded, and willing to step outside our comfort zones.

Innovation is like a puzzle, and the joy comes not from having a complete picture, but from the process of fitting the pieces together. The path forward is never certain, but that’s what makes it exciting. Let’s keep exploring, keep puzzling, and most importantly—let’s have fun along the way.