Introduction: The Upside of Error

The great advantage of realizing that we have told a story about the world is realizing that we can tell a better one: rich with better ideas, better possibilities--even, perhaps, better people. 
from Being Wrong, by Kathryn Schulz (page 339)

As the title of this exhibition suggests, the topics presented here rely on ideas or beliefs that today seem absurd, fanciful, or just plain wrong. As the title also suggests, each of these examples may be usefully framed as a jumping off point into fruitful discussions about our world and how we understand it. So what if the Earth was never a flat disk at the center of the universe? It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it presented a model to help wrap one's head around the relationship between Earth and the cosmos. We invite you to take each of these outrageous hypotheses as grand testaments to our boundless capacity for failure and, since we're still here to tell the tale, our ability to survive--if not thrive from--our errors.