Mystery machine

Something that doesn't exist can be anything we want. That's why God, for example, is so many different things to people. Everything from a forgiving father to a despot demanding the heads of infidels. He's whatever people want, or think they want, or have been told they want—or their parents wanted.
    And our imagined future is another example. We can't be different today from what we are today, but we can imagine that, in the future, when we don't yet (and might never) exist, we can be anything we want.

Something that doesn't exist can be anything we want. What a strange thought that is. And what a play on be!
    Nature, in evolving minds, created not just exquisite plumages and coats, symmetrical smiles and curves, but a marvelous, mysterious neuronal machine—a machine that can play with what isn't as well as what is.