"The unexamined life is not worth living," postulated SocratesConsidered by some to be the greatest philosopher in history, Socrates is credited with developing the whole notion of critical reason.. From the dawn of time, humanity's main enterprise has been in developing ideas, and 2022 was no exception.

Modern Matrix. 2022 has been the year of virtual reality. We are closer than ever to realistic submersion in the virtual world. That is, if we are not already in one. This year, philosopher David Chalmers released a much-acclaimed book which argues that we are "probably" in a simulation.¹ According to him, if creating a simulation which appears perfect is technologically plausible, somebody in the universe must have already done it - and the result is probably the lives we are living right now.

Evolution overhaul. Evolutionary theory has been the groundwork of biological science for more than a century and a half, but this year scientists launched a challenge to the rule. They say that evolution is too much of a "one-size-fits-all" theory, which does not explain key biological characteristics like light-sensitive cells in the eyes, or chemical DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is the material in an organism that carries genetic information. mutations which take place in an organism's lifespan but can still be passed down. These scientists argue that science needs to do away with "grand theories".

Giving (far) forward. Billionaires Jeff Bezos, Changpeng Zhao and Yvon Chouinard have all pledged almost their entire fortunes to the world at large this year. Effective altruismA philosophical and social movement that suggests using evidence and reason to work out the best way to help as many people as possible. has once again taken the ultra-rich world by storm, after its first major manifesto, What We Owe the Future, was published by philosopher William MacAskill.

MacAskill advocates for a ruthlessly utilitarianA school of ethics that focuses on maximising people's happiness and minimising their suffering. approach to donating money. For him, our moral duty to the unborn future human race is greater than to current, local causes - so, in other words, stop giving money to local animal shelters or homeless charities and start investing it in a long-term solution to climate changeLong-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Human action is a major cause of climate change. and pandemics.

Celebrating dying. 2022 marked the end of the life of Shatzi Weisberger, a representative of the "positive death movement", which aims to dispel our silent fear around death. The movement argues that the Western world's fear of death is a result of tabooForbidden due to social rules of behaviour., and that to live life without being scared of dying we need to talk openly about even its more grisly aspects.² Weisberger invited journalists and thinkers to witness the end of her life, bringing the idea that we should find beauty in death at the fore of 2022's big ideas.

Dark matter. This year, a group of scientists challenged a well-accepted theory about "dark matterA hypothetical substance that can not be detected by scientific instruments. Its existence is inferred from evidence that the universe consists of more mass than we can perceive." and gravity. Researchers previously claimed that situations where Newton's theory of gravity does not hold in the universe, for example in disc galaxies, could be explained by dark matter providing gravitational pull.³ In 2022, scientists argued that dark matter may not exist at all, and that the phenomenon is better explained by an alternative theory of gravity theorised back in 1982.

Yes: History will remember the thinkers who drove our world forward, not the individual actions we choose. We represent and commemorate our time through ideas.

No: Thinking too hard inhibits action, which is one of our main problems today. We spend so much time arguing about how to deal with problems that we never get around to actually solving them.

Or... Ideas power action and action powers ideas. It is impossible to separate these two things: they are the oppositional forces which drive the world forwards.