Introduction

The world is a complicated place. With TV, radio, newspapers, podcasts, magazines, books and blogs, there are so are many pieces of information flying at us at a high speed that it makes your head spin. Who has the time to consume it all? Who has the time to read all this seemingly important information?

What is needed is to somehow narrow it down to information that is essential and which can yield the most utility.

This book is an attempt to simplify the vast complexity of the world while providing key facts and greater understanding of the patterns present in the world.

These are the fifty things that everyone should know.

Each entry in the book follows a simple three-part analysis: (1) What you should know; (2) Why you should know it; and (3) Further Thoughts on that particular topic for those interested in greater analysis. In this way, important core information can be presented in a concise manner.

Note: The topics to be covered in the book include geopolitical events (Arms trade, Global security), philosophy (Can anything be proved?), evolution (Why Intelligent Design is not science), psychology (Do people blindly obey authority?), religion (Does prayer work?), dispelling myths, interesting facts that stimulate and amuse, and resolving age-old questions (Chicken and egg, Tree falls in the forest).

The 5 samples below are an indication of the content/style of the book, but most entries are not as mathematical.

Sample 1 - There is more happiness than you can imagine

Title: Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy

What you should know: There is more happiness than you can imagine.

I imagine you are saying “Really? What do you mean?” so let’s explore.
How many happy moments did you have last year? How many really happy moments? You could count a moment of laughter, a wedding, a holiday, a majestic sunset or some other positive personal experience. Well, let’s be rather conservative and say you only had one. Yup, just one. But it was a good one! You know, either that laugh out loud BIG happiness, a feeling of deep inner peace, or some moment of exhilarating ecstasy.

What about everyone else? Well, let’s assume they had only one too. We must realize that some people may have such horrific lives that they didn’t have one single good moment throughout the entire year and of course these people would not fit into this calculation. These are the people who need our help the most, but for current purposes, they will be a small fraction.

Let us also assume that everyone’s happiest moments of the year are evenly distributed. It is true that there will be clusters around major holidays, religious festivals and the like, but with so many different cultures and time zones, even distribution is a reasonable assumption. (Then again, who says seeing your relatives on holidays brings happiness?)

Even though the actual number of people on the planet is about 6.7 billion, to accommodate those who have truly terrible lives (and again to be conservative), we shall say there are just 6 billion people on the planet. So, with 6 billion people having one happy moment each year (that are evenly distributed overall), doing some quick math indicates that there are about 16 million different people having their happy moment each day of the year!

Further, if you break down the numbers into smaller time units, we find that there are 190 NEW people having the happiest moment of their entire year EVERY SECOND!

Just try to picture that - almost 200 people having the happiest moment of their whole year. By the time you read this whole sentence, the number of people having their happiest moment will be close to 500, and these people are all smiling, laughing, joyous or feeling deep serenity.

Why you should know it: In a world where bad news is news and good news is rare, it is important to realize that there is more happiness than you can imagine. Additionally, this unimaginable happiness is occurring constantly.

Further thought: Unfortunately, this is also true for sadness. I don’t mention this to bring you down, but because the truth should also be acknowledged. So what does this discussion mean and how should one think about things? As one’s perception of their relative standing can affect mood, and that knowledge of the great misfortune of others often serves as a stimulus to help them, I suggest that you think of all the happiness in world when you are feeling down and that you think all of the people who need your help when you feel fortunate and resourceful.

(end note)
The Math: Using 6 billion people, that means there are 6 billion happy moments. Assuming they are evenly distributed throughout the year, just divide by days in the year, or 365.

6 000 000 000 / 365 = about 16,438,356

Also, given that there are 60 seconds in a minute, 3600 seconds in an hour, seconds in a day, can divide happy moments in a day by seconds in a day:
16,438,356 / 86400 = 190 happy moments each second.

Sample 2 - What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Title: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

What you should know: The answer is the egg.

This traditional brain teaser is actually a specious/misleading question; it does not take into account a broader range of information and relies upon a misunderstanding of history and lack of evolutionary knowledge.

It would seem that the chicken first needs the egg (to come from) and that the egg first needs the chicken (to come out of). We can begin trying to answer this question by asking a question: Which chicken and which egg? Obviously if we pick a particular chicken and a particular egg we can show which one came first.

But, says the questioner, “I don’t mean a chicken and an egg, I mean the chicken and the egg.” Here one has to wonder what ‘the’ actually means. Well, if the questioner is referring to the existence of chickens and the existence of eggs, the answer is obviously eggs. This is because of the history of life on earth. Life began as simple, single-celled organisms, and over billions of years more complex life evolved. Various branches in the tree of life (a bush is likely a better metaphor) evolved into more complex forms. Chronologically, bacteria appeared first, then worms, then fish, then reptiles, then birds and then mammals. (Note that this list is neither linear, nor a progression, just the appearance of different organisms in time). Since we know that reptiles hatch from eggs and reptiles preceded birds, then we can conclude eggs preceded chickens. Thus the egg came first. I would assert that for the question to make sense it should be interpreted as done above, and given that interpretation, “the egg” is the answer.

Why you should know it: For two main reasons. One is to remember to think about what a questions is actually asking. If the question itself does not make sense, then it is highly likely that an answer will also either be unattainable or nonsensical. Secondly, the use of the chicken and the egg ‘problem’ is pervasive in our society without really being coherent. Consequently, to help simplify a complex situation, many people invoke an incoherent cultural cliché which does not fit analogously, nor does it actually explain anything. Such occurrences might give some indication of why there are problems in the first place.

Further thought: A better question is: Which came first, DNA or the protein? This is because it truly seems like each is required for the development/existence of the other. Another reason is that this is an actual question that inspires current research. The current thinking is that possibly some form of rudimentary DNA was used, but there is not yet a definitive answer.

Sample 3 - There are more suicides than homicides

Title: A Lonely Planet

What you should know: Every 35 seconds, someone on Earth commits suicide.

Each year approximately 1 million people will die from suicide. Suicide accounts for half of all violent deaths worldwide and, according to 2001 WHO report, also accounts for more deaths than homicide (500,000) and war (230,000) put together. The figure of 1 million does not even include the 10-20 million unsuccessful suicide attempts.

Why you should know it: In our society we often hear of terrible murders or shootings that have occurred, but suicides do not get much publicity. As stated above, suicide is a bigger problem than homicide. In the United States there are twice as many deaths from self-harm compared to homicides, while in Canada there are seven times as many suicides as homicides (with the rate 4 times higher for men than women).

Further thoughts: So why so little press about suicides? A possible reason is that people find death by homicide more captivating because they believe, mostly unrealistically, that it relates to their personal safety. But if one is concerned about societal problems, then they have a misperceived notion of what is more important; it is likely that the family members of someone who has killed themselves experience a similar horror as those family members who have suffered a homicide.

Sample 4 - Severity of Starvation

Title: WWII is happening all the time.

What you should know:
Currently about 8.5 million people die every year from starvation.
The total number of lives lost in WWII was approximately 50 million. The Second World War was from 1939-1945 (i.e., six years).

The deaths from starvation over a 6 year period are approximately 51 million. (6 x 8.5 = 51.)

This means that in EVERY six year period, deaths from starvation are equivalent to deaths from WWII.

Why you should know it: WWII is seen as one of the greatest tragedies of recent history. Everyone thinks it was a terrible war (as if wars are ever nice), but that it was almost a necessary war because a murderous evil had to be stopped. WWII was recognized and is continually recognized as a horrific situation, in which so many died. There are memorials, commemorations and the overt discussions of the evil exhibited.

But if one is measuring shear number of deaths, there is a great imbalance. As mentioned above, WWII ended 50 million lives, but it ended 60 years ago. So if we multiply the starvation deaths over this time period, we end up with 500 million dead from starvation.

I guess you have to ask yourself what is worse: the human traits of greed, power, domination, violence and apathy that lead people to try to destroy one another, or the human traits of greed, power, domination, violence and apathy that lead people to not share their food.

Further thoughts:
It should be mentioned that at the time of WWII the population of the planet was less than one billion, while today it is over six billion. Proportionally then, the deaths of WWII are much higher. Alternatively, 20-30 years ago, when the population of the planet was 4-5 billion, 100 million were dying from starvation every six years, so the proportions may not be that disparate.

Sample 5 - A tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?

Title: The Sound of Understanding

What you should know: The answer to the question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?"

This is another example (see Chicken/Egg page X) where is it useful to specify what the question is asking and what the words in the question mean. To get to the answer, first we need to discuss how humans hear anything. It is important to realize that ‘hearing’ happens in the brain where neurons fire because they have received electrical signals from the ear.

Attempting to provide simplicity as well as greater detail, the process of hearing begins when vibrations of molecules in the air (i.e., sound waves) are captured by the outer ear and passed along to the ear drum, at which point the vibrations are transferred along delicate bones that vibrate appropriately to further send the information to the fluid-filled cochlea. The somewhat altered vibratory information is then sent to sensors in the organ of Corti where the mechanical wave information is converted into electric signals in neurons by little hair like cells. This ‘electrical sound information’ proceeds along a nerve, through the brainstem, the thalamus and eventually to the primary auditory cortex in the temporal lobe.

The key part of all that was the very beginning: “…vibrations of molecules in the air…” That, plus a brain, is what sound is! So, any occurrence that causes molecules in the air to move has the potential to be detected as a ‘sound.’ This potential is realized if there is a brain around to decode the vibrations into nerve signals into the sensation of sound. Therefore, the answer is that a tree causes molecules to vibrate, but if there are no brains around, the tree will not make a ‘sound.’

Why you should know it: It demonstrates that seemingly complicated (even purportedly unanswerable!) questions can be quite answered if investigated more thoroughly. Also, you can be that person at a party that actually has an answer to this question (and then have the experience of half the guests finding you interesting and the other half disliking your analytical nature.)

Further thoughts: More interestingly is the amusing topic of pondering how other organisms would experience ‘sound’ (i.e., what would their sound sound like?). Surely there are very few trees that do not have numerous organisms in its surrounding environment. Obviously there would be bacteria, and insects, but perhaps even small furry creatures or a bird or two. One could say there is a simple test to see if an organism can detect sound. In a forest or jungle, simulate the sounds of a tree breaking and beginning to fall, if the organism being tested doesn’t react, it probably doesn’t ‘hear’ much.

Additionally, if you are seeking an unanswerable question to clear your mind, like a Zen koan, it might be best to stick with the big, seeminly unanswerable question – where did the universe come from?

Finally, the description given above is sufficient for understanding how human process auditory information, but for those seeking to fully grasp the complexity of the situation, you could start by pondering what, if anything, is doing the ‘hearing’ (i.e., there are no little ears in the brain).