As a university research lab, our Future Reality Lab always needs to keep our focus clear. There are so many cool things we could be working on, but that doesn’t mean we can just do whatever the heck we want.
In everything we do, the driving force can be boiled down to “What question are you asking?” There can be no research without a well-formed question.
Before we think about anything else, we need to think about what question is framing everything we do. If the question is too narrow, it is not interesting. If it is too broad, it is useless.
I know it can sound trite when stated outright, but it is a principle that is worth keeping firmly in mind: There can be no good answers without good questions.
There was this site, Edge, which asked each year a question, answered by a community of research, artist, and alike. In 2018 they ended their journey by asking their last question : “What is the last Question ?”
It’s an elegant way to poke at a collective mind at a specific time :
https://www.edge.org/responses/what-is-the-last-question