THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS

BATTERSEA

CHILDHOOD

1 BATMAN

Melanie, Nolan, and Pete are sitting in the cafe at Ikea. Their children are in the adjacent creche.

Melanie: “Most adults with issues say that it all started with childhood trauma. We need to be extremely protective of our children. Leaving my kids in a creche like this is as far as I’m comfortable going from them.”

Nolan: “We do need to be protective, but not too much. Not so much that they become incompetent.”

Melanie: “Oh come on, that’s not a real risk is it?”

Nolan: “It can be. Parents can be too loving.”

Melanie: “I’d rather be too loving than anything else.”

Nolan: “I heard this podcast recently. It was called Batman and it was about this blind man who grew up in a really unstable home. His mum couldn’t really look after him because she had lots of other kids and no money, and he got into all sorts of trouble and got hurt a lot. For example, he rode a bicycle into a lamp post. He was always covered in bruises.”

Melanie: “That’s awful!”

Nolan: “Well maybe there were bits of it that were awful, but the guy, Batman, actually says these circumstances were good for him. They forced him to develop a skill, and because if this skill, he can ride a bike down a busy street, he can hike uneven terrain, he can navigate the world as if he had sight.”

Melanie: “What skill did he learn?”

Nolan: “He learned to echolocate, like a bat. He learned that if he clicks, he can hear echoes and using those echoes he can map his surroundings. He now teaches other blind kids how to echolocate too. And guess what he says the biggest challenge is in his work?”

Melanie: “What?”

Nolan: “Parents who are too loving, who can’t let go, and won’t let their kids risk any adversity.”

Pete, who has been listening to the whole conversation, says: “That’s an incredible example. But as a parent, how do you decide what’s a good risk and what’s not? Where do you draw the line?”

Nolan: “There is no line. It’s a grey area. And letting go is always a bit of a risk.”

Melanie: “But then how do you avoid your mind being totally absorbed with risk calculation all the time?”

Nolan: “You don’t! That’s parenting.”

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

How much should parents protect their children?
Is parenting an unending series of risk calculations?
What is the perfect childhood?
Should parents be the only people responsible for protecting their children? What is the role of society?
When is risk healthy?
When is adversity good? (If ever?)

SOURCES:

BA, THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS Group Member - read more of her writing here.

Spiegel, A., & Miller, L. (2015). Batman (No. 544) [Audio podcast episode]. In This American Life. WBEZ Chicago. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/544/batman

2 TRIPPING

“TTEOAC” is a new trend. It stands for “THROUGH THE EYES OF A CHILD”.

Forget LSD and magic mushrooms and meditation. People are now desperate to try this new experience.

It started with VR technology, simulating what a 3 year old might see when they look at the world, but things have escalated.

Neuroscientists mapped children’s neurocircuitry and invented a way of simulating it in adults. All you have to do is put a swimming-cap-looking-thing on and the technology does the rest.

It’s now not uncommon to see swimming-capped, grown adults sitting in the grass gawping at insects or daisies or even their own toes.

These adult participants have only good things to say about the experience.

Moreover, they believe they are now better people. They report more care for other living beings and the environment, more wonder at the world around them, and a sense of living in the present moment.

Off the back of their “TTEOAC” experiences, a small group has started advocating for greater input from children in governmental decisionmaking. They want 3 year olds to have voting rights (once political issues have been appropriately translated for 3 year old minds via picture books).

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

Should children be empowered to vote in some way? How would this change the world?
Why do you think experiencing a toddler’s mind is so appealing to adults?
What do you think of its effects? (More care for other living beings and the environment, more wonder at the world around them, and a sense of living in the present moment)
If you had the opportunity to try on the ‘swimming-cap’, would you?
Do you think there are any potential downsides?

SOURCES: BA, THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS Group Member - read more of her writing here.

3 THE INVENTION OF CHILDHOOD

Gladys picks up a leaflet from the doormat and reads:

“Before the 1870s, in the UK, childhood didn’t really exist. You were just an incompetent person until you could work.

With the advent of Edwardian laws, a) protecting children under 10 from working in factories, and b) compelling parents to send children to school, childhood became a thing.

Children’s books, toys, and entertainment took off (though only really accessible to wealthy children at first) (Torrens, 2023).

After the invention of childhood, came the invention of adolescence in the 20th Century. More time in education meant more time as a non-worker. Adolescence developed its own identity due to pop culture and advertising (BBC Bitesize, 2022). Additional laws were passed to prohibit teenagers from certain activities.

Nowadays, neuroscientists are saying ‘adolescence’ stretches into mid-twenties (Silver, 2018) and even thirties. (Gallagher, 2025).

We believe that given this new research, and the precedent of the past, a new life stage of “Finding-yourself-hood” (age 20-30) should become part of not only our conceptualisation of a human life, but law.

Just like ‘childhood’ was protected in the 1870s, we should protect “finding-yourself-hood” and give everyone aged 20 to 30 a universal basic income, in order to support their ability to ‘find themselves’ before they become true ‘adults’.”

Gladys looks up from the leaflet somewhat bemused. She wonders “what about ‘late-middle-aged-hood’”?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

What do you think of this leaflet?
How important is the history of ‘childhood’ and ‘teenagehood’/’adolescence’ when understanding modern life?
What might be the advantages of establishing a “finding-yourself-hood” universal basic income?
What about disadvantages?
How might your current age affect your thinking?

SOURCES:

BA, THOUGHT EXPERIMENTS IN PUBS Group Member. You can read more of her writing here.

BBC Bitesize. (2022). Who were the first teenagers? BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zqbf3j6

Gallagher, J. (2025). Adolescence lasts into 30s – new study shows four pivotal ages for your brain. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgl6klez226o

Silver, K. (2018). Adolescence now lasts from 10 to 24. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42732442

Torrens, S. (2023). The invention of childhood. National Trust for Scotland. https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-invention-of-childhood