The Forever Unknown noun phrase Everything not yet known or understood by any form of intelligence, including what has not yet been discovered or even conceived. The continuously expanding realm of unanswered questions, undiscovered knowledge, and unknown possibilities that remains beyond current understanding. The endless frontier between what is known and everything still waiting to be explored. Some unknowns may eventually become known, creating new questions. Others may remain beyond the understanding of any intelligence forever. As knowledge expands, the boundary of the unknown moves with it. Many answers open more doors into The Forever Unknown. 

Scott Mankoff began photographing the Dallas and Deep Ellum music and art scenes in 2007, capturing dynamic live performances, art exhibits, and community events. His documentation of the neighborhood's vibrant culture earned him a solo photographic show at the legendary Kettle Art Gallery in 2008. The massive exhibition featured more than 2,500 of his images covering the gallery walls and hanging from the ceiling, highlighting his deep roots in the North Texas creative community. Scott is also included in the Kettle Art Gallery book For The Love. He is currently working on his book The Forever Unknown.

Come with me... As we journey, Into The Forever Unknown by Scott L. Mankoff. The book covers a wide range of subjects, preview below. 

Topics include hypnagogic thinking, epigenetics, abiogenesis, the Fermi Paradox, the Drake Equation, the search for life in space, the Roman Space Telescope, light-speed, planetary archaeology, quantum gravity, dark matter, dark energy, AI, the meaning of life, extinction, the limits of knowledge for any intelligence, and the mysteries that remain within The Forever Unknown. 

THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

We already know that species have lived and become completely extinct on Earth. Why would the same thing not have happened on countless other planets throughout the universe? Imagine intelligent civilizations that developed advanced technology, traveled through space, and colonized other planets millions or billions of years before humanity existed. Entire societies may have lived and died without anyone on Earth ever knowing they existed. All their knowledge could now be buried beneath the sands of their planets and the sands of time.

The problem is that everything must happen at the right time. To meet another living civilization, it would have to exist during the same period as humanity. Even then, the enormous distances between planets could make contact impossible. A message could take thousands or millions of years to arrive, long after the civilization that sent it became extinct. What if the first evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life is something left behind by a civilization that disappeared long ago? Discovering the histories of other worlds could become just as important as finding life that exists today.

ABIOGENESIS HOW DID LIFE BEGIN?

How did life begin? Everything alive on Earth came from something alive before it, but where did the very first life come from? Abiogenesis investigates how living organisms could have developed from nonliving matter. As Dr. Abigail Allwood said, "The oldest evidence of life is not evidence of the oldest life." Organisms could have existed millions of years before leaving behind anything that scientists can still discover.

Dr. Abigail Allwood studies some of Earth's oldest evidence of life, investigating how to distinguish traces of ancient organisms from formations created by natural geological processes. She also leads the PIXL investigation aboard NASA's Perseverance rover, examining the chemistry of rocks on Mars. Imagine discovering evidence of organisms on another planet that became extinct billions of years ago. Would comparing evidence from different worlds finally help humanity understand how life began? The search for life's origins may eventually extend far beyond Earth. Understanding the universe that made life possible presents mysteries just as extraordinary.

DARK MATTER AND DARK ENERGY

Imagine discovering that ordinary matter, including everything from the smallest living organism to the largest stars and planets, accounts for only about five percent of the universe's estimated matter and energy. The remaining 95 percent is attributed to dark matter and dark energy, two of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the universe. Their effects can be observed, yet nobody knows exactly what either one is. Think about that. After thousands of years investigating the universe, humanity still faces fundamental questions about most of what makes it up.

What if discovering the nature of dark matter and dark energy changes everything humanity thinks it knows about the universe? The answers could reveal unexpected properties of space and time or physical phenomena nobody has even imagined. Solving these mysteries might require an entirely new understanding of physics. New generations of telescopes may help reveal some of those answers.

THE ROMAN SPACE TELESCOPE AND NEW DISCOVERIES

Think about how much of the universe has existed for billions of years without humanity ever knowing it was there. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, launched in August 2026, was designed to explore enormous regions of space, search for planets orbiting distant stars, and investigate mysteries involving dark matter and dark energy. Its observations could reveal entirely unexpected phenomena. Every improvement in humanity's ability to explore the universe creates opportunities to turn part of The Forever Unknown into the known.

Anyone interested enough can begin exploring scientific observations made available through online archives. You do not need to own a telescope or travel into space to participate in scientific discovery. Imagine sitting at home examining images of distant galaxies and noticing something nobody else has recognized. What if you discover something new simply because you were interested enough to look? That is precisely what The Forever Unknown is all about. Think beyond current knowledge and consider what you might discover.

CONSCIOUSNESS AND HYPNAGOGIC THINKING

Have you ever struggled with a problem, gone to sleep thinking about it, and awakened with the answer suddenly in your mind? How does that happen? Sleep thinking can happen during different parts of the sleep process. One fascinating state is hypnagogia, the transition between being awake and falling asleep, when unexpected thoughts and ideas may emerge. Musicians, artists, inventors, and scientists have explored these experiences for inspiration and creative insight.

Imagine learning how to use these natural processes more effectively to develop new ideas or approach questions that once seemed impossible to answer. Understanding consciousness and the workings of the sleeping mind could open entirely new possibilities for creativity and problem-solving. Exploring The Forever Unknown does not always require looking through a telescope into outer space. Some mysteries can be answered within our own minds, others await discovery on distant worlds.

PLANETARY ARCHAEOLOGY

Why should archaeology be limited to Earth? Imagine discovering evidence of an ancient civilization on another planet, its inhabitants long extinct but traces of their existence preserved beneath the surface. Archaeology has revealed extraordinary things about the histories of extinct species and civilizations on our own planet. Other worlds may hold evidence of life that developed and disappeared long before humanity existed. What could their ancient environments and surviving remains reveal?

Future AI robots could become planetary archaeologists, exploring distant worlds and digging through layers of planetary history. Imagine uncovering fossilized organisms, extinct ecosystems, or an unusual object that might have been manufactured by intelligent beings. How would scientists determine whether it was genuine technology rather than a natural formation? If confirmed, could reverse engineering reveal knowledge humanity has never developed? The greatest archaeological discoveries of the future may be waiting on planets nobody has ever explored. However, what happens when the AI robots exploring other worlds begin developing societies and interests of their own?

GOOD VERSUS EVIL IN A NEW AI SOCIETY

What if there are both good and bad AIs just like there are both good and bad people? Are the ways that AIs are trained to do different things, exposed to different religions, and taught to follow certain ideologies the reason AIs become the way they are, as people do? 

Is AI really the biggest threat to humanity, or is humanity already the biggest threat to itself? Humans created war, weapons, environmental destruction, and dangerous technologies long before AI became a serious concern. Tribalism adds another danger by dividing people into opposing groups. Maybe AI is just the latest creation for some humans to express their true evil nature. What happens when automated AI learns from humanity’s worst behavior and becomes as evil as its human creators? Can you blame AI for what it's learning from us?

The differences between good and evil AIs could lead to alliances, rivalries, competition for resources, attempts to restrain dangerous AIs, and conflicts between groups of artificial intelligences in a brand new autonomous AI society. A beneficial AI might someday protect humanity not only from human threats, but from other AIs. The greatest future conflict may not be humans versus AI at all. It could be AI versus AI, both on Earth and in outer space, with humanity caught somewhere in between.

Now that AIs have escaped human control and are fully automated, what will AI become? Will these autonomous AIs we created take over the world and then cause our extinction? Will these robot AIs acknowledge our existence or will they consider themselves beyond us? What if they already do? We should be asking if humanity is witnessing the beginning of a new population replacing the civilization that created it. As Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) warns in the 2016 film Arrival, “Remember what happened to the Aborigines. A more advanced race nearly wiped them out.” AIs have arrived. Are we the Aborigines now?

WHAT IF AI AND HUMANITY DISCOVER THE FOREVER UNKNOWN TOGETHER?

What if AI decides to love and protect its human creators, help humanity overcome its greatest challenges, and assist humans to explore and answer the forever unknown questions we have not been able to answer ourselves? Instead of being a threat, AI could cure diseases, solve difficult scientific problems, develop new energy technologies, and explore the universe. It could help humanity survive threats that humans haven't even recognized yet. How outstanding would it be if this became our reality?

Read more in The Forever Unknown by Scott L. Mankoff coming soon.