But What If We're Wrong? Read online

transgressive, 79–80

  artificial intelligence, 124, 227–29

  assumptions, flawed, 93–94, 185–86

  Austen, Jane, 45

  author’s background, 195–97

  Avengers: Age of Ultron (film), 227

  Axis: Bold as Love (album), 60

  Bach, Johann Sebastian, 72

  Bachelor, The (TV show), 170

  Bailey, F. Lee, 14

  Ballers (TV show), 170

  Bandwagonesque (album), 92n

  Barr, Roseanne, 174–75

  Barrett, Deirdre, 138n

  Barry, Dave, 233, 234n

  Bartlett, Jamie, 37

  bat, imagining being a, 254

  Baudrillard, Jean, 28

  Baxter, Les, 78

  Beach, The (Garland), 53

  Beatles, 60, 66–68, 75, 84, 161

  Bee Gees, 79–80

  Beethoven, Ludwig van, 72

  being wrong

  author’s experiences, 1–2, 237–38

  collective conscious, 2, 239

  about the future, 252–53

  major shifts in beliefs before 1600, 3–7, 98–102

  socially detrimental effects of, 239

  Being Wrong (Schulz), 10–11

  bell curve. See Gaussian curve

  Bellamy, Matt, 63–64

  Benét, Stephen Vincent, 93

  Beowulf, 45

  Berlin, Isaiah, 200

  Berry, Chuck, 79, 84–86

  bias, cultural, 25–27

  Bigelow, Kathryn, 152

  Bill of Rights, 209–12

  bin Laden, Osama, 151–53

  Blair, Jayson, 154n

  Blake, William, 32

  blogging, 231–32

  Blue Velvet (film), 166

  blues music, 81

  Boccherini, Luigi, 73

  Bonaparte, Napoleon, 58, 156

  Book of Lists, The (Wallechinsky, Wallace, and Wallace), 13

  Book of Predictions, The (Wallechinsky, Wallace, and Wallace), 13–15

  books

  Civil War literature, 22, 155

  commercial success of, 27–28

  diversity of authors, 25–27

  evaluating writers, 22–28, 30–39

  extinction of, 19–20

  films based on, 53

  finding deeper themes of, 47–48

  literary canon, 32–33, 47–48

  plot vs. tone, 21–22

  Borland, Chris, 179–80

  Bostrom, Nick, 121–23, 129

  Boswell Sisters, 59

  bowl games (college football), 192–93

  boxing, 187

  Boyhood (film), 140

  Bridges to Babylon (album), 82

  Brod, Max, 35, 38

  Brody, Richard, 189

  Bryant, Kobe, 188

  Buchanan, Pat, 246–48

  Burns, Ken, 155

  Bush, George W., 197–98

  Byrne, David, 68–70

  Campbell, Joseph, 74

  “Canon Fodder” (GQ column), 242–45

  Carey, John, 70

  Carlin, Dan, 201–5, 215

  Carlin, Lynn, 201

  Caro, Robert, 51

  Carter, Amy, 79

  Catastrophe (TV show), 167

  Catholic Church, 117–18, 134

  ceilings in movies, visibility of, 244

  certainty, 6–7, 10

  changes in the world, dealing with, 248

  Chicago Daily Tribune, 232n

  children’s involvement in sports, 190–91

  Chronicles (Dylan), 230

  Citizen Kane (film), 90, 244

  Citizenfour (film), 236

  Civil War, US

  causes, 233–34

  literature, 22, 155

  Civil War, The (film), 155

  classical music, 72, 73

  climate change

  disagreement about, 239–41

  future consequences of, 240

  no middle-of-the-road position on, 240–41

  “clutch” scenarios in sports, 250n

  Coates, Ta-Nehisi, 52

  Cobain, Kurt, 92n

  collective conscious, 2

  Colophon, The, 92–93

  color

  The Dress (viral phenomenon), 146–47

  Homer’s description of Aegean Sea, 147–48

  light, influence of, 149

  shiny/matte distinction, 148

  subjective nature of, 147–50

  commercial success, 27–30, 56, 77

  communication methods, 15–16

  consensus, scientific, 112–13

  conspiracy theories, 133–34, 145

  Constitution, US, 207–12, 220–21

  consumer reviews, 7–8

  Contemporary Kafka, 35–39, 41–43

  content, too much, 10, 33

  Cooper, Alice, 144

  Cooper, Dennis, 54n

  Copernicus, Nicolaus, 99, 116, 117

  Corrections, The (Franzen), 57

  Cosby Show, The (TV show), 174

  cosmic rays, 125n

  cosmological constant, 130

  criticism, 7–8, 10, 78

  Crosby, Bing, 77

  Dark Net, The (Bartlett), 37

  Davydov, Denis, 156

  Declaration of Independence, 212–13

  Deep Web, 37–39

  “Deflategate” scandal, 41

  democracy, 215–16, 219

  Descartes, René, 137, 149–50

  “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline, 232n

  Díaz, Junot, 25–27, 39

  Dick, Philip K., 31

  dictatorships, 215

  dimethyltryptamine (DMT), 141–42

  dinosaurs, 97–98

  disco music, 79–80

  disrespect for past classic works, 243–45

  Do Not Sell at Any Price (Petrusich), 81

  Domino, Fats, 79

  “Don’t Stop Believin’” (song), 71

  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson), 143–44

  dreaming

  content of dreams, 142–43

  dimethyltryptamine (DMT), 141–42

  “Dream Argument,” 137n

  lucid, 137, 141

  meaningless nature of, 138–39

  and near-death experiences, 141–42

  Dress, The (viral phenomenon), 146–47

  dying and sleep, relationship between, 141–42

  Dylan, Bob, 74–77, 86–87, 230

  Earth, location in Milky Way, 120

  earthquakes, 258–60

  echolocation sonar, 254

  Ed Sullivan Show, The, 60, 66

  Egan, Jennifer, 52

  Eggers, Dave, 52

  Ehrlich, Paul, 14

  Einstein, Albert, 4, 112, 114

  elections, US

  Ohio’s importance in, 196–97

  political polarization since 9/11, 198–99

  presidential race of 2000, 197–98, 216

  See also voting

  electronic dance music (EDM), 79

  EmDrive rocket thruster, 119–20

  Empire (TV show), 170

  “End of History?, The” (Fukuyama), 226–27

  End of Science, The (Horgan), 223–24, 226

  End of War, The (Horgan), 226–27

  Entourage (TV show), 170

  equality, 212–14

  Esquire, 246

  E.T. (film), 182

  “Ethicist, The” (New York Times Magazine column), 255

  Everest, Mount, 183

  extraterrestrials, music for, 83–
84

  fact-checking, 154n

  false memories, 150–51

  Fight Club (Palahniuk), 53

  film industry, 28–30, 90, 227, 243–45

  financial crisis of 2008, 41

  First Amendment rights, 211–12

  flawed assumptions, 93–94, 185–86

  fleeting popularity, 23–24

  Foer, Jonathan Safran, 47

  Fomenko, Anatoly, 135

  football

  college level, 191–93

  comparative risks in other sports, 183

  dangerous nature of, 179–80, 185

  future of, 178–82

  hypothetical scenario of its decline, 180

  National Football League (NFL), 180–81, 182–83

  safety modifications envisioned, 181

  silo analogy, 184–85

  forces

  fundamental vs. emergent, 4

  gravity, 3–7

  Fourteenth Amendment rights, 220

  fox vs. hedgehog, 199–201

  Franzen, Jonathan, 27, 36, 261

  free speech, limitations to, 211–12

  Freed, Alan, 59

  freedom, 214

  Freud, Sigmund, 138

  Frost, Robert, 93

  Fukuyama, Francis, 226–27

  future, thinking about, 252–53

  Galileo, 5, 100, 117–18

  Gaussian curve, 22n

  Gazzaniga, Michael, 203n

  Gehry, Frank, 90

  genius, recognizing, 23–24, 73

  Gibbon, Edward, 207

  Gillett, Charlie, 14

  Gioia, Ted, 77–79

  Gladwell, Malcolm, 177–79, 181

  Glass, Stephen, 154n

  global politics, 15, 17

  God and the simulation hypothesis, 124–27

  Gone Girl (Flynn), 53

  “good job” response to art, 188–89

  Goodman, John, 174

  Gore, Al, 197–98

  gorillas, 255–56

  GQ, 242–43

  Grand Theft Auto (video game), 128

  Grant, Ulysses S., 206

  gravity

  Aristotle’s ideas about, 5, 101

  author’s knowledge of, 3

  evolution of ideas about, 3–7

  temperature analogy, 4n

  greatness, 51n

  Greene, Brian, 3–4, 101–8, 112–14, 124–25

  Gross, David, 104n

  Gumbel, Bryant, 185

  Halley’s Comet, 136

  Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps, 156–57

  Harbaugh, Jim, 185

  Hard Rain (album), 75

  Hardcore History (podcast), 201–3

  Harrison, George, 84n

  heliocentrism, 117

  Hellman, Martin, 260

  Hemingway, Ernest, 93

  Hendrix, Jimi, 60

  “Here Comes the Sun” (song), 84

  Hero with a Thousand Faces, The (Campbell), 74n

  hero’s journey, 74

  Hersh, Seymour, 151–53

  Herzen, Alexander, 201

  Hidden Reality, The (Greene), 103

  Higgs boson (“God particle”), 130–31

  historical figure game, 155–56

  history

  confirming, 151, 153–57, 203–5

  revisionist, 233–35

  History: Fiction or Science? (Fomenko), 135n

  Hobson, John Allan, 138

  Homer, 147–48

  Horgan, John, 223–27

  How Music Works (Byrne), 69

  human brain, mapping, 228–29

  Hunter, Tab, 79

  “Hurricane” (song), 75

  identity politics, 25–30

  Illig, Heribert, 134

  “I’m Eighteen” (song), 144

  immortality, achieving, 228–29

  Independence Day (film), 243

  inequality of similar people, 212–14

  Infinite Jest (Wallace), 48

  infinity, 103–4

  information

  collective server for brain’s contents, 228–29

  decentralization, 40–41, 86

  limited, 11–12

  instability of the world, 10

  intelligence

  cognitive, 256

  emotional, 256–57

  of octopuses, 253–54

  international relations, 15, 17

  Internet culture

  blogging, 231–32

  conventional, 36, 86

  Deep Web, 37–39

  The Dress (viral phenomenon), 146–47

  early adopters, 231

  fluidity of history, 235–36

  start of, 229

  unlikely relationships, 236

  “You’re doing it wrong” argument, 242

  Jackson, Michael, 1, 67

  James, Skip, 81

  Jefferson, Thomas, 213, 214

  Jenner, Caitlyn (formerly Bruce), 29

  Jesus, 135

  “Johnny B. Goode” (song), 84

  Johnson, Lyndon, 204n

  Jonson, Ben, 94

  Journey, 71

  Jung, Carl, 74n, 138

  Kael, Pauline, 186

  Kafka, Franz, 31–32, 35–36, 38–39

  Kasparov, Garry, 136

  Kennedy, John F., 17, 218

  “Killing of Osama bin Laden, The” (Hersh), 151–53

  King, Stephen, 27–28

  Klosterman, Chuck, background, 195–96

  Klosterman’s Razor, 17, 42–43

  Knausgaard, Karl Ove, 213

  Koko (gorilla), 255–56

  Krakauer, Jon, 52

  Kuhn, Thomas, 114–16, 224–26

  Kurzweil, Ray, 228

  L.A. Noire (video game), 128–29

  language

  describing colors, 147–48

  permanence of words, 19–21

  TV dialogue, 166–67

  unfamiliarity of, 57

  Large Hadron Collider (LHC), 130–31

  Lear, Norman, 173

  Led Zeppelin, 60n

  Lennon, John, 60n, 67n, 86

  Lethem, Jonathan, 86–87

  Lewis, Jerry Lee, 60n, 79

  Lewis, Sinclair, 92

  lies and untruths, 154–57

  life after death, 11–12

  Limbaugh, Rush, 185

  Lincoln, Abraham, 24, 96, 173n, 218

  Linklater, Richard, 139–44, 150–51

  literature, criticism of, 7–8, 10

  London Review of Books, 151

  lucid dreaming, 137, 141

  Lugar, Richard, 260

  MacCambridge, Michael, 181

  machines, and attempts to kill people, 227

  Mad Men (TV show), 164–65

  Madison, James, 207, 210

  Mahler, Jonathan, 152

  Man Without a Country, A (Vonnegut), 43

  Manhattan, attack on police in, 150–51

  marching music, 64–65

  marginalization, 41–42, 81

  Marley, Bob, 65

  Marlowe, Christopher, 94

  “Mathematics of the Past” (Kasparov), 136

  Mathog, Mike, 109n

  Matrix, The (film), 28–30, 122n, 227

  Maugham, W. Somerset, 31

  Mayweather–Pacquiao fight (2015), 187

  McCarley, Robert, 138

  McCartney, Paul, 67

  McLaughlin, John, 245–48

  McLaughlin Group, The (TV show), 245–47

  media alienation, 47–48

  Meltzer, Richard, 61<
br />
  Melville, Herman, 7–9, 21–22, 31–32

  memory, 150–51, 230

  Mencken, H. L., 233

  merit, 89–94

  Metamorphosis, The (Kafka), 36

  Miami Herald, The, 234n

  Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 93

  Moby-Dick (Melville), 7–10, 21–22

  modern verification process, 154–55

  Mondale, Walter, 204

  monomyth (hero’s journey), 74

  Moore, Michael, 197

  morality, 126–28

  Moravec, Hans, 121

  Morozov, Nikolai, 135

  movies. See film industry

  Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 72, 73

  multiverse hypothesis, 103–5, 119–20

  music

  author’s qualifications as a critic, 95–96

  blues, 81

  classical, 72, 73

  critics’ role, 78–79

  decline in interest, 63–64

  dominance of single artist, 64–66

  electronic dance music (EDM), 79

  for extraterrestrials, 83–84

  finding the best example of a genre, 85–87

  industry, 14n

  marching, 64–65

  1920s, 77

  punk-vs.-disco divide of the 1970s, 79–80

  records and LPs, 19–20, 81, 83–84

  repurposing rock songs, 62–63

  rock, 14, 60–87, 92n, 95, 161

  rock and roll, 59–60, 68, 74, 82, 86. See also rock music

  rock ’n’ roll, 59–60, 72, 78, 82, 85, 159. See also rock music

  skiffle, 161

  My Struggle: Book 2 (Knausgaard), 213

  myth of universal timeliness, 44–45

  Nagel, Thomas, 254

  naïve realism, 10–11, 34, 116, 239

  NASA, 83–84, 118–19

  Nashville (TV show), 170, 171n

  National Football League (NFL), 180–81, 182–83

  Native American population, 41–42

  Navy SEALs, and assassination of bin Laden, 151

  near-death experiences, 141–42

  Neptune, discovery of, 109

  Never Mind the Bollocks (album), 79–80

  Nevermind (album), 92n

  New Musical Express (NME), 79

  New Republic, The, 154n, 235

  New York magazine, 217

  New York Times, The, 25, 26, 150–51, 154n

  New York Times Magazine, The, 22–23, 152, 255

  New Yorker, The, 177, 189, 258

  Newton, Isaac, 3–4, 5–6, 105, 108–9, 110, 112, 149

  Newton’s Third Law, 119

  Niemitz, Hans-Ulrich, 134

  9/11 attacks, 41, 48n, 199

  Nirvana, 70, 92n

  Nixon, Richard, 186

  “normal science,” 115–16

  “now,” perpetual sense of, 232

  nuclear weapons, 260–61

  numerical constants, 124–25, 130

  Nussbaum, Emily, 164

  Obama, Barack, 1, 217–18

  objective ranking, 94

  Occam’s Razor, 17

  octopuses, 253–54