Seven regions of the unanswered.
These are conceptual areas, not a taxonomy. Questions drift between them, and several belong in more than one at once, which is usually a sign the question is a good one.
Ocean of Life
What is alive, and how did it get here?
Origins, evolution, extinction, and the organisms that live where we expected to find almost nothing.
31 questions
This region in profile
- Surface
- 2 questions
- Shallows
- 13 questions
- Deep
- 15 questions
- Abyss
- 1 question
- Unknown
- 0 questions
- What killed the dinosaurs?surface
- Why does anything help anything else?surface
- Are viruses alive?shallows
- Can an extinct species be brought back?shallows
- How many living things have we never met?shallows
- How much of our own ocean have we seen?shallows
- How much of you is you?shallows
- How old is the plague?shallows
- Is this a mass extinction?shallows
- What happened to the Neanderthals?shallows
- What is a species?shallows
- What killed the large animals?shallows
- What lives under the ice?shallows
- Who else was here?shallows
- Why does so much of the ocean glow?shallows
- Do other animals know they exist?deep
- How deep does life go?deep
- How did life begin?deep
- How do animals navigate?deep
- How does a cell know what to become?deep
- Is anyone else out there?deep
- What was the ancestor of everything alive?deep
- Who were we before anyone wrote it down?deep
- Why are there more species in the tropics?deep
- Why did complex cells appear only once?deep
- Why do we age?deep
- Why do we sleep?deep
- Why is there sex?deep
- Why is there so much oxygen?deep
- Would evolution repeat if it ran again?deep
- What lives where sunlight never reaches?abyss
Ocean of Mind
What is it like to be something?
Consciousness, memory, dreams, perception, and the strange fact that experience exists at all.
25 questions
This region in profile
- Surface
- 2 questions
- Shallows
- 9 questions
- Deep
- 10 questions
- Abyss
- 3 questions
- Unknown
- 1 question
- Why do we miss what is in front of us?surface
- Why does anything help anything else?surface
- Can anyone read your mind?shallows
- Can the brain learn a new sense?shallows
- Can you trust a memory?shallows
- Does prayer do anything?shallows
- Does the language you speak change what you see?shallows
- How much of what you see is invented?shallows
- How much of you is you?shallows
- Why does a missing limb hurt?shallows
- Why does a sugar pill work?shallows
- Do other animals know they exist?deep
- How do animals navigate?deep
- How long have we been talking?deep
- Is depression a chemical imbalance?deep
- What is a memory made of?deep
- What makes you one person?deep
- Where does anaesthesia take you?deep
- Why do we age?deep
- Why do we dream?deep
- Why do we sleep?deep
- Could a machine be conscious?abyss
- Do we choose what we do?abyss
- Why does anything feel like anything?abyss
- What happens when you die?unknown
Ocean of Space
What is out there, and is any of it looking back?
Exoplanets, black holes, dark matter, the origin of the universe, and the search for company.
22 questions
This region in profile
- Surface
- 1 question
- Shallows
- 7 questions
- Deep
- 7 questions
- Abyss
- 6 questions
- Unknown
- 1 question
- Where did gold come from?surface
- How many planets are there?shallows
- Is there another planet in the solar system?shallows
- What happened in the first three minutes?shallows
- What is left when a star dies?shallows
- Where did Earth’s water come from?shallows
- Where did the Moon come from?shallows
- Where does the solar system end?shallows
- How will the universe end?deep
- Is anyone else out there?deep
- What is most of the universe made of?deep
- What is sending millisecond radio bursts across the universe?deep
- Where do cosmic rays come from?deep
- Where does the observable universe end?deep
- Why do two good measurements of the universe disagree?deep
- Is the universe infinite?abyss
- What happens inside a black hole?abyss
- What is the universe expanding into?abyss
- What was the universe like before there were stars?abyss
- Where does information go in a black hole?abyss
- Why is there more matter than antimatter?abyss
- Why is there anything at all?unknown
Ocean of Time
What happened before anyone was writing it down?
Human origins, lost civilisations, vanished knowledge, deep history, and the futures ahead of us.
27 questions
This region in profile
- Surface
- 1 question
- Shallows
- 12 questions
- Deep
- 10 questions
- Abyss
- 4 questions
- Unknown
- 0 questions
- How did people reach the Pacific islands?surface
- Are we in a new epoch?shallows
- Can a lost script be read?shallows
- Did a comet hit at the end of the ice age?shallows
- How close is today’s Bible to its earliest copies?shallows
- How old is the plague?shallows
- What did we build before we had cities?shallows
- What happened on Rapa Nui?shallows
- What happened to the Neanderthals?shallows
- What killed the large animals?shallows
- When did people reach the Americas?shallows
- When did we start wearing clothes?shallows
- Who else was here?shallows
- How long have we been talking?deep
- How much of human history has been lost?deep
- What happened to the gospels that were left out?deep
- What is a memory made of?deep
- What was the ancestor of everything alive?deep
- What will be left of us?deep
- Who were we before anyone wrote it down?deep
- Why did farming start?deep
- Why did the Bronze Age collapse?deep
- Why did the Indus cities empty?deep
- Does the past still exist?abyss
- Is time fundamental?abyss
- What was the universe like before there were stars?abyss
- Why does time only move one way?abyss
Ocean of Reality
What is the world actually made of?
Quantum mechanics, time, information, existence, and the questions underneath all the others.
27 questions
This region in profile
- Surface
- 1 question
- Shallows
- 2 questions
- Deep
- 6 questions
- Abyss
- 17 questions
- Unknown
- 1 question
- Can everything be computed?surface
- Does information weigh anything?shallows
- How much of what you see is invented?shallows
- Are the constants of nature constant?deep
- Can two things be connected across any distance?deep
- How big can something be and still be quantum?deep
- Is anything truly random?deep
- Is empty space empty?deep
- What is most of the universe made of?deep
- Could a miracle ever be evidence?abyss
- Could this be a simulation?abyss
- Does the past still exist?abyss
- Is the universe infinite?abyss
- Is there a smallest length?abyss
- Is time fundamental?abyss
- What actually happens when we look?abyss
- What does quantum mechanics mean?abyss
- What happens inside a black hole?abyss
- What is the universe expanding into?abyss
- Where does information go in a black hole?abyss
- Why do the constants allow anything to exist?abyss
- Why does a good God allow suffering?abyss
- Why does anything feel like anything?abyss
- Why does mathematics describe the world?abyss
- Why does time only move one way?abyss
- Why is there more matter than antimatter?abyss
- Why is there anything at all?unknown
Ocean of Earth
How well do we know the planet we live on?
The deep sea, the interior, the climate system, and the enormous parts of this world nobody has looked at.
24 questions
This region in profile
- Surface
- 1 question
- Shallows
- 13 questions
- Deep
- 9 questions
- Abyss
- 1 question
- Unknown
- 0 questions
- What killed the dinosaurs?surface
- Are we in a new epoch?shallows
- Can an earthquake be predicted?shallows
- Did a comet hit at the end of the ice age?shallows
- How high will the sea rise?shallows
- How many living things have we never met?shallows
- How much of our own ocean have we seen?shallows
- Is Earth’s magnetic field about to flip?shallows
- What is lightning?shallows
- What lives under the ice?shallows
- Where did Earth’s water come from?shallows
- Where did the Moon come from?shallows
- Where does the ocean’s plastic go?shallows
- Why does so much of the ocean glow?shallows
- How deep does life go?deep
- How did life begin?deep
- Was the whole planet once frozen?deep
- What causes ice ages?deep
- What is inside the Earth?deep
- What will be left of us?deep
- When did the continents start moving?deep
- Where are Earth’s tipping points?deep
- Why is there so much oxygen?deep
- What lives where sunlight never reaches?abyss
Ocean of Faith
What can be shown, and what is believed?
Christianity as history and as living faith: the texts, the evidence, the institutions, and the line between what can be established and what is held.
44 questions
This region in profile
- Surface
- 1 question
- Shallows
- 12 questions
- Deep
- 26 questions
- Abyss
- 4 questions
- Unknown
- 1 question
- Why are there so many kinds of Christianity?surface
- Did Christianity invent charity?shallows
- Does prayer do anything?shallows
- How close is today’s Bible to its earliest copies?shallows
- Is Christianity growing or shrinking?shallows
- What did Christians think about war?shallows
- What did the church do about abuse?shallows
- What did the earliest Christians actually do?shallows
- What did the missions do to the people they reached?shallows
- What do Christians mean when they say the Bible is true?shallows
- What were the inquisitions?shallows
- Why do translations of the Bible disagree?shallows
- Why was Jesus executed?shallows
- Did Jesus say he was God?deep
- Did Paul invent Christianity?deep
- Did the Exodus happen?deep
- Did the first Christians expect the world to end?deep
- How did a persecuted sect become the empire’s religion?deep
- What did Christianity do about slavery?deep
- What did Jesus actually teach?deep
- What did the ancient world write about Jesus?deep
- What did women do in the early church?deep
- What does Christianity mean by faith?deep
- What happened to the gospels that were left out?deep
- What happened to the people who knew him?deep
- What happens at communion?deep
- What was decided at Nicaea?deep
- What were the Crusades actually about?deep
- When did Christianity stop being Jewish?deep
- Where did hell come from?deep
- Where did the devil come from?deep
- Where did the papacy come from?deep
- Where did the Trinity come from?deep
- Who decided which books became the Bible?deep
- Who wrote the Gospels?deep
- Why did Christians fight about pictures?deep
- Why do churches disagree about marriage?deep
- Why do the Gospels tell it differently?deep
- Why does the Christian Bible contain someone else’s scriptures?deep
- Could a miracle ever be evidence?abyss
- What about people who never heard any of it?abyss
- What happened after the crucifixion?abyss
- Why does a good God allow suffering?abyss
- What happens when you die?unknown