It Could Be Otherwise: Science in the Age of Uncertainty

A profound argument for science that embraces uncertainty and promotes possibility, creativity, and the belief that we can shape, if not determine, our future.

“This wise book challenges everything we take for granted about thinking scientifically.” —Annie Duke, bestselling author of Thinking in Bets

The search for certainty is embedded deep in the mythos of science. Science is expected to provide definitive answers based on immutable and universal laws. In It Could Be Otherwise, however, neuroscientist Stuart Firestein challenges this idea, extending the reach of science beyond merely discerning what must be to encompassing what may yet be possible.

The classic view of science, Firestein argues, reduces the world to bland predictability and us to our fates. Instead, modern discoveries of deep uncertainty, even unknowability, in evolution, complexity, physics, and all sciences, show that our actions are not strictly governed—and that science is an agent of freedom.

In our contemporary age, suspicion of science and its certainties runs deep. It Could Be Otherwise argues that science isn’t about deciphering what the universe has already determined—instead, science offers possibilities. It invites us not to be prisoners of destiny but navigators of our own futures.

Stuart Firestein is a professor of neuroscience at Columbia University and a member of the Santa Fe Institute. He has published over one hundred scientific papers in journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, and Neuron. He is a Guggenheim fellow, a member of the advisory committee for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Also author of the books Ignorance and Failure, he lives in New York City.