My favorite quote from an interview with Dr. Gabor Forgacs is:
“Dream, dream, dream! […] We live in a time when it is really difficult to say: “This is impossible!””
I am deeply saddened when I hear people say that something is impossible. It is a window to their mind. The idea that anything that is impossible to man is almost inconceivable to me. Perhaps I am overly optimistic on when we can attain specific capabilities, but I am more conservative than many others. To me, it is never a question of “If,” only a question of “When.”
It saddens me to think about how people could live in a world where they believe mankind is limited to what we can see in front of us today. It saddens me because of how dull the future must look to that person. It saddens me because that is one less person who is dreaming big and planning how to advance mankind. Imagine for a moment a world where everyone discards the word and the idea “impossible.” What if it was not even a concept in our language? History has shown time and time again that when one person demonstrates a breakthrough that proves the impossible is possible, countless people start to invent and develop well beyond that one limit within months. The human mind sees artificial limits and struggles against them. It causes great thinkers to doubt themselves. It causes the average person to get stuck in the current day. In a world where people believe that everything is possible, we could accomplish anything.
Do yourself a favor, every time in the next month that you catch yourself thinking something is impossible, instead, ask yourself: “What would the world look like if it WAS possible?” Is that a world worth exploring? If there were enough brilliant people working in that one problem, for a long enough time, with confidence and creativity, could you really imagine that mankind would not find a way?