Certainty of uncertainty and uncertainty of certainty

"Uncertainty is the only certainty there is," wrote mathematician John Allen Paulos. "Knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security."

In a world where certainty once felt like the bedrock of daily life, uncertainty has now emerged as a defining feature of our times. From the unpredictability of global events like pandemics, wars and climate change to personal anxieties about jobs, health and relationships, the notion of stability has been profoundly shaken.

Living with uncertainties has become not just an occasional reality but a persistent condition of modern existence. As we are challenged by this new normal, the ability to adapt to and even thrive in uncertain environments is increasingly crucial.

Life is a kaleidoscope of uncertainties; the chronological age is a suite of uncertainties; time is a series of uncertainties. The life, the age, or the time - defined in terms of uncertainty - are the phenomena of the Supreme Uncertainty. Man's existential sojourn starts from a world of certainties (the Eden) to a world of uncertainties (this earthly world).

When uncertainties are certain, we are but to get all along with them resignedly. In the Bollywood movie, Guzarish, Ethan, played by Hrithik Roshan, is a former magician, now a quadriplegic as he meets an accident while performing a trick. In the 'fly scene' at four minutes and fourteen seconds into the movie, a housefly buzzes around and lands on the tip of his nose. It irritates him, but he can't bear it off or swat it. After a few failed nods and shakes of his head, he smiles and lets it sit there.

Pursuit of certainty underestimates the pervasive contingencies that define human lives. People not embracing uncertainties try to brace against them by amassing sources and resources more than their actual needs. Consequently, the chain reaction of selfish and material pursuits is triggered. Shakespeare writes in Macbeth: "And you all know, security/Is mortals' chiefest enemy."

From seeking certainty of the availability of physical resources comes the premonitory seeking of surety in building up prospective relationships. Uncertainty regarding the certainty of physical resources eclipses the certainty of uncertainty of human indomitable will whose ability to work wonders and create everything from nothing must be more bankable. "Uncertainty is so painful that we are happier with doom than doubt."

Sometimes, in a country like Pakistan, lack of planning and proper management creates a simulation of uncertainties. It is, actually, a state of confusion and consternation. All the official work of bureaucratic matrix marred by red tapism initiates common man into a "world of uncertainties" of another kind - rather call it the underworld, the Hades.

Overthinking is the worst dampener of the will that urges one to wade through uncertainties. Ruminations blur the silver linings and lodestars that can serve to counter our natural tendency to overestimate risks and negative consequences. A world of uncertainties is a world of romance, curiosity and acceptance. Contrarily, our obsession with certainty often blindfolds us of what is important. Avoiding uncertainty makes us uncertain even of our own self.

Uncertainty democratises creativity. The unknown levels the playing field, allowing artists to contribute uniquely. Where certainty fosters conformity, uncertainty breeds a culture of experimentation and innovation. By trekking into the realm of uncertainty, artists often find their subjects self-generating. Uncertainty guides an artist to the liminal space filled with moments of epiphany and serendipity.

Human existence achieves its sublime excellence when certainty is accepted in uncertainties and uncertainty in certainties. Daniel Siegel, a pioneer of interpersonal neurobiology, coined the term temporal integration to show how we can accept both our desire for certainty and our acceptance of uncertainty while letting these thoughts coexist alongside each other equally.