What If There Were No Hypothetical Situations?

If you lived in a society with no hypothetical situations, then you would be in a situation similar to some of the more primitive tribes out there. I've read of languages where there's no such thing as "maybe" only "true" or "not true."

Without hypotheticals, you can't imagine a future. So you'd have a present and a past, but you couldn't ask questions that involve research. You can discover things but you can't imagine options because that involves hypothesizing.

You'd be in the same situation as most animals (as far as we can tell, they don't sit around talking with each other and trying out experiments on the world.)

reply to post by MissSmartypants


Love hearing you it put that way. Thanks!

Originally posted by Indellkoffer
If you lived in a society with no hypothetical situations, then you would be in a situation similar to some of the more primitive tribes out there. I've read of languages where there's no such thing as "maybe" only "true" or "not true."

Without hypotheticals, you can't imagine a future. So you'd have a present and a past, but you couldn't ask questions that involve research. You can discover things but you can't imagine options because that involves hypothesizing.

You'd be in the same situation as most animals (as far as we can tell, they don't sit around talking with each other and trying out experiments on the world.)

So that's what separates us from the animals....the hypothetical question.