Cleo Abram – Huge* if True (YouTube)

Two months before the Wright Brothers took their first flight in 1903, a newspaper article revealed the impossibility of building a “flying machine.” The reasoning in the article was simple: if it took millions of years for nature to give birds the ability to fly, then it would take equally as long for the best mathematicians and mechanics to give humanity the same ability. The article encouraged those working on the ambitious flying machine project to give up. Two months later, the Wright Brothers took their first flight from Kittyhawk, and the “impossible” flying machine changed the world in ways no one could have imagined.

This is the story that Cleo Abram tells in her opening video of her YouTube channel, Huge* if True. In every episode, Abram dives into one idea that could change all our lives if it proves to be true—no matter how impossible it might seem.

In Abram’s opinion, journalists often like to report negatively about new technologies. She says, “These stories are easier to tell, and people like to read them.” Because of this, those who spend a lot of time with social or traditional media can often get the sense that the world is not a good or safe place to inhabit, and we should be in constant fear. Abram agrees that new technology can bring about very serious problems that need to be considered and addressed, but instead of asking the question “What could go wrong?” she invites her viewership to ask a different, more optimistic question: “What could go right?”

In many cases, Christians have often worried about how technology might shape the world and the human person for the worse. But Christians might take a cue from Abrams by remembering that God generously gives humanity the gifts of creativity, curiosity, and inventiveness for the purpose of stewarding the world toward flourishing.

People are so hungry to hear stories about how new technologies could change the world for the better, Abram’s YouTube channel has grown to almost two million subscribers within a year. Based on Abram’s subscriber numbers, viewers seem to be resonating with her optimistic view of the future and her positive spin on technology.