100 Illogical TV and Movie Tropes: Hollywood and the Willing Suspension of Disbelief

There’s an unwritten compact between Hollywood writers and audiences – that, in return for being entertained, we viewers will agree to forgive certain logical inconsistencies, scientific improbabilities, and narrative contortions, a process known as ‘willing suspension of disbelief.’  Some of these logical liberties are arguably justified: omissions of tedious detail in the cause of creating a more efficient entertainment experience (we're all grateful to skip the small talk); esthetic enhancements in the cause of creating a more attractive version of reality (no one wants to see what those actresses really look like when they wake up). But many of them are, frankly, lazy shortcuts that we've allowed the writers to get away with for so long now, we've simply stopped processing how absurd they are.  

I thought it might be fun to call out some of the more obvious examples. Imagine my surprise when I started counting and realized I was up to 100! I'm not sure whether to interpret this as evidence that we viewers are extremely charitable, or extremely gullible.

"MY TV LIFE" TROPES

1. When female characters wake up in the morning with perfect hair and makeup – not an eye booger or face crease in sight.
2. When the lovers wake up the next morning wearing PJs. We’re supposed to believe that, after a night of hot love-making, they decided to get redressed?
3. When the female MC steps into the shower and tilts her face into the water. As if any human being would willingly invite pelting water to gush into their eyes, noses, and ears.
4. When the MC hangs up the phone without saying goodbye. So rude!
5. When the mom fixes a full breakfast *on a weekday* and no one bothers to eat it – disregarding the fact that no mom has time to make a full breakfast on a workday, and that any mom worth the name would let her family get away with that kind of disrespect!
6. When the MCs agree to meet at a restaurant, order their food, then finish their conversation and walk away, their plates untouched.
7. When the MC is able to flag down a taxi without having to wait. Even funnier if it’s raining!
8. When the MC is driving through a busy city during rush hour, but still manages to find a parking spot right in front of their destination.
9. When the person driving the car barely looks at the road because they’re so engaged in conversation with their passenger.
10. When the MC shows up with a hangover, but the symptoms barely last no longer than the mandatory hangover joke.
11. When every bag of groceries includes either a loaf of French bread or a bouquet of fresh flowers peaking out the top.
12. When the room is filled with candles (in either a creepy or romantic way) – as if anyone would take the time to light 100 candles, and half of them wouldn’t be immediately extinguished by  random drafts. 
13. When characters live in apartments or houses that they couldn’t possibly afford
14. When the MC suddenly reveals that they are able to tango like a house dancer straight off the set of Dancing With the Stars.
15. When the MC has a child but never seems to have to worry about child care.

NARRATIVE CONVENIENCE TROPES

1. When everyone’s at home all day because, besides the MC, no one else actually seems to have a job.
2. When the MC is carrying a suitcase, briefcase, or cup of coffee that is – judging by the way the object reacts to gravity - clearly empty. (Corollary: when the baddies make off with bags of gold bars, seemingly unbothered by the fact that each one weighs 25lbs.)
3. When the MC suddenly reveals that they conveniently speak some exotic language – Arabic, Russian, or sign language.
4. When the MC turns on the TV just in time to catch the precise news story they need to see. (Alternatively, they walk into the restaurant just as the TV over the bar is airing the relevant news story.)
5. When someone throws a punch in a bar and suddenly everyone in the bar decides to engage in the brawl. Fistfights, unlike yawning, aren’t actually contagious. 
6. When people hide things under the floorboards. First of all, where’s the carpeting? Second of all, floorboards not attached to underlying trusses would squeak like a mother, giving their presence away
7. When the intelligence officers with top secret clearances discuss their cases over drinks at the public bar. Holy Security Breach, Batman!
8. When the MC dives into a lake or pond and has no trouble seeing through the water.
9. When people on the brink of death use their final breaths to answer the detective’s questions rather than, you know, asking them to tell their moms that they loved them.
10. When the bomb is diffused with one second remaining. Enough said.  (Honorable mention: when the bomb can only be defused by cutting ONE wire, but not the others. In the real world, cutting ALL the wires is by far he most reliable way to stop a bomb from detonating!
11. When the MC, though vastly outnumbered, manages to win the fight because the villains inexplicably decided to attack them one at a time.
12. When the female MCs emerge from the fray (pursuit, struggle, field hospital, etc.) with her makeup and hair immaculate.
13. When the MCs in the romance comedy are divided by a rift that could be have been mended by a single conversation.
14. When characters insist “there’s no time to explain!” when there’s clearly enough time to explain.
15. When the villain’s henchmen burst into the room and start shooting, giving absolutely no thought to their own safety. Even evil henchman are not immune from the imperative for self-preservation.

CRIME SHOW TROPES

1. When the forensic computers make DNA or facial matches within the first minute of searching.
2. When the forensic IT guy enhances the blurry photo to create a crystal-clear image. Computers are good, but they can’t “enhance” data that doesn’t exist.  
3. When the psychotic killer decorates their room in photos, newspaper articles, and random ephemera, all connected by bits of string. Is there some sort of standard home decorating manual that all psychotic killers are required to consult?
4. When the detectives walk up to the house they can’t legally enter, only to find the door conveniently ajar.
5. When people pop open doors by taking a running start and hitting them with their shoulder. Real doors laugh at us for believing this would work.
6. When the detectives decide to explore that empty warehouse or suspicious apartment using their flashlights, choosing to ignore the conveniently-located light switches by the door
7. Practically everything the movies tell us about knocking people unconscious! The process is unreliable (just hitting someone on the head doesn’t guarantee they’ll drop unconscious), inefficient (even boxers are rarely knocked unconscious for more than 10 seconds), and incredibly harmful …. If an actual person were to be hit on the head as many times as your average fictional detective, they’d be suffering from CTE and dementia by the end of the first season. 
8. When people who have just been informed that their loved ones are dead proceed to calmly answer the detective’s questions. Grief = instantly processed and disposed of!  
9. When the television news shows feature parents begging for help returning their missing loved ones. News programs don’t have that kind of time (unless you’re some sort of celebrity).
10. When the bad guys dig holes for burying their loot or bodies. First of all, it’s incredibly grueling work and takes forever. Second of all, no roots and rocks – seriously?
11. When female detectives show up wearing low-cut blouses, tight skirts, and high heels. Like any actual female detective wants to be worrying about whether their boobs are going to pop out of the top of their tank top during a pursuit.
12. When the person being tortured for information refuses to answer even the questions that, frankly, aren’t that important. 
13. When the detective avoids asking questions that could actually, you know, help solve the crime - because if he/she did, the show would end too soon.
14. When the character has an earpiece in their ear so that they can parrot what they’re being told to say by another character. Can you imagine how awkward an actual conversation conducted in this fashion would hit? 
15. When characters meant to be “inconspicuous” wear earpieces with clearly visible cords – and then spend the entire scene whispering to the people who are listening in, as if that’s not going to immediately arouse suspicion.
16. When the MCs evade being shot by hiding behind car doors. As the Mythbusters have memorably proved, doors can slow bullets, but they don’t stop them
17. When the bad guys shoot into cars or houses, but always waist-high so that the MCs can evade the bullets by simply hugging the floor
18. When the baddies reach up and rip off their face, disclosing that they’ve been wearing a mask the whole time. This one has to amuse the Hollywood makeup artists who spend hours applying prosthetics – “you mean, all we had to do was just create a mask?”  
19. When one character is dabbing at the wound of another without actually touching the “blood,” so that the makeup people don’t have to reapply it in the event of another take.
20. When the mystery is solved by the villain accidentally revealing that they know something about the crime that wasn’t disclosed. Truly the laziest of all plot devices.
21. When a minor characters announces that they know who the murderer is, but they’re going to wait until later to reveal what they know, leaving plenty of time for the murderer to bump them off
22. When the detective gathers all the suspects at the scene of the crime to reveal the villain. Can you imagine a detective attempting this in real life?
23. When the prosecutor in the trial goads the defendant into confessing his guilt while on the witness stand, as the defendant’s attorney does nothing to intercede.

PURSUIT TROPES

1. When the investigators shout “FBI!” from across the road, giving their quarry time to flee.  You know what might work better? Waiting until you’re within arm’s reach before identifying yourselves.
2. When the investigators commandeer a car for the big chase scene, and the car owners willingly step aside with nothing more than a mildly irritated “hey …!” Pretty sure 99.9% of actual car owners would immediately roll up their window, give you the finger, and drive away.
3. When the protagonist flees into the woods but is immediately tracked down by the villain, because apparently all villains possess the tracking skills of aboriginals.
4. When the MC, despite fleeing at top speed, is unable to outrun the villain/monster that is pursuing them at a slow amble
5. When the protagonist insists on fleeing the villain along well-paved roads rather than darting off into the surrounding buildings or woods.
6. When it doesn’t occur to folks fleeing trains to just, you know, step off the side of the tracks.
7. When the MC realizes they’re being followed by a strange car and they decide the best strategy is to drive faster – versus, say, driving straight to the nearest heavily populated area or police station.
8. High speed car chases – especially the ones where the cops place their vehicles in the path of the oncoming villains. No police budget extends to replacing that many cars!
9. When the car runs into a telephone pole and explodes. Hollywood vastly overrepresents the risk of cars exploding on impact.
10. When the MC travels through roomy, clean air ducts. Have you ever seen an actual air duct? Think narrow, filthy, and entirely incapable of supporting the weight of a human. (Plus, you’d make a tremendous amount of noise moving through them – they creak when AIR passes them, for goodness’ sake!)
11. When dudes dressed in full suits pursue their suspects across town in blazing hot weather without breaking a sweat. (We’re talking about you, Miami Vice!) 
12. When people plummet from upper story windows, only to fall into convenient dumpsters or trash trucks. And forget canopies breaking anyone’s fall – those weathered strips of fabric supported by flimsy metal rails wouldn’t break a cat’s fall
13. When the couple holds hands as they flee from danger.  A romantic notion, spoiled by the fact that it’s virtually impossible to gain any sort of speed without pumping your arms as you run, so basically they’re just holding each other back.
14. When folks jump into water from staggering heights and survive the fall. In real life, water molecules can’t displace that quickly, so the impact is similar to hitting concrete.

HORROR TROPES

1. When the MC begins to suspect they’re sharing a house with a malevolent spirit yet they decide to stay. One word: “hotel.”
2. When the MC hears a sound downstairs and creeps down to check it out instead of calling the police, as any sensible person would do.
3. When the monster, moving at a slow ramble, manages to overtake the MC who is fleeing at top speed
4. When the thunderstorm in the background is generating lightning at a rate that would make a Tesla coil blush.
5. When there’s an unknown murderer on the loose, but that one guys decides to split off from the rest of the group because “they can take care of themselves.” Humans are zebras – we instinctively gather in herds when danger approaches, in hopes that the murderer ends up picking someone else to prey on.

SCI-FI TROPES

1. When sound travels through space, undaunted by the fact that sound waves can’t actually move through a vacuum.
2. Also at the risk of stating the obvious – when spaceships travel faster than the speed of light. Unless we’re grossly misunderstanding the way the universe works, this remains a physical impossible.
3. Dogfights in space! This one kills my dad, an engineer who understands (as every middle schooler ought likewise to do) that there is no gravity or friction in space, and therefore no need for banking or other aerodynamic maneuvers.
4. When explosions in space are accompanied by lingering fireballs or smoke, undaunted by the reality that there’s no oxygen in space. In reality, an explosion in space would appear as a split-second flash of light following by an almost instantaneous dispersion of debris.
5. When the aliens have huge eyes (an adaptation for low lighting), but emerge from spaceships that are bathed in brilliant light.
6. When spaceships dodge asteroids in space – asteroids that are, in actuality, separated by tens of thousands of miles.

MEDICAL TROPES

1. When characters with bullet wounds say “I’m okay – it’s just a flesh wound” before picking up where they left off. Are you freaking kidding me? The only acceptable response to being hit by a bullet is screaming in pain and demanding an ambulance.
2. When people slash their palms or arms to draw blood. For one thing, who slashes their arm when all they need are a few drops? Also, a perturbed wince doesn’t ever begin to reflect the amount of pain that such a slash would cause
3. When patients in the hospital dramatically rip out their IV lines and start getting dressed. Those IV lines don’t come out with a fight … and a whole lot of pain. 
4. When the main symptom of the MC’s terminal illness is an inconvenient cough.
5. When people burst through panes of glass with just a few scratches. Reality: most glass windows require tremendous force to break, and anyone bursting through them would immediately begin gushing blood from various slashed aortas
6. When the person treating the MC’s cuts dabs the area around the cut but not the cut itself, leaving the makeup undisturbed for potential retakes.
7. When people have in-depth discussions while out on a jog. No one actually talks when they’re jogging.
8. When the character rips the IV out of their arm without so much as a wince. Most people can’t rip tape off their hairy arm without crying out, much less ripping a needle out of their flesh at the same time.  
9. When the protagonist is wounded and having their wound cleaned – but the person delivering the first aid is merely dabbing at the periphery of the cut so as not to disturb the makeup
10. TV CPR performed at a glacially slow pace in order to allow for dialog. As anyone with first aid training will confirm, effective CPR is rapid and energetic, allowing little scope for anything but breathing heavily and grunting.
11. When the MC spends the previous scene downing drinks like a football player guzzling Gatorade, only to show up in the next scene completely sober.
12. When the MC pushes someone in a dispute, causing them to hit their head on something and instantly die. If skulls were that fragile, few of us would survive our childhoods.
13. When the person being treated for cancer has lost all their hair but still has their eyebrows and eyelashes

SCIENCE & TECH TROPES

1. When the IT specialist hacks into some super-secure network with just a few keystrokes.
2. When the MCs press a button that causes the elevator to abruptly halt. Has anyone ever actually encountered one of these buttons?
3. When the facial recognition technology is able to miraculously transform a pixelated blur into a crisp image.
4. When opening a file launches an avalanche of documents and photos that flash up on the screen all at once – all very dramatic, but can we all agree that’s not how opening a file works?
5. When the detectives find a cellphone at the scene of the crime and immediately start scrolling through the contents – because on TV, cellphone batteries apparently last forever
6. When the scientists invent or distill a vaccine/serum/cure in just a few days. If Covid taught us nothing, it taught us that shit like that takes months.
7. When there’s a thunderstorm raging outside the window and there’s a new flash of lightning every 2 seconds. Unquestionably dramatic, but meteorologically questionable.
8. When the MC is able to successfully land the plane/helicopter based solely on verbal directions relayed from the tower. Anyone who’s ever played a flight simulator game understands how laughable this is. 

ANACHRONISMS

1. When historical characters show up with clean hair and dazzling white teeth. Reality: bathing and teeth whitening weren’t big priorities back in the past.
2. When the “students” in the classroom or wandering about campus (high school, college) are clearly in their 20s or 30s
3. When the teacher is writing something on the chalkboard. Someone needs to update Hollywood writers that teachers stopped using blackboards at least a couple decades ago
4. When the teacher/professor dismisses the students by shouting out the homework as they leave.  (Honorable mention: When the teacher/professor dismisses the students by shouting out the homework as they leave, as if we live in a world without syllabuses.)

Reality Check: 10 Things Your Parents Should Have Taught You About the Real World

File this under "flash rant," but getting tired of interacting with folks who seem not to have been taught these few foundational principles of life by the people - parents, guardians - who should have done so. 

Perhaps if we posted these 10 "reality checks" in every classroom, instead of the 10 Commandments, we might actually start churning out students prepared to function as responsible, respectful adults.

1. Life isn't fair; sometimes good guys get hurt, and sometimes bad guys prevail.
2. People aren't thinking about you nearly as much as you think you are.
3. You don't know half of what you think you know.
4. You are free to make your own choices, but you are not free of the consequences.
5. You don't get to dictate what other people think or do.
6. Only you can fix you.
7. Basic respect is a right; enduring respect is earned.
8. If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you always get.
9. Other people's lived experience is just as valid as yours.
10. People will judge you based on your actions, not your intentions.

10+ Factors That Perpetuate Poverty in the United States

Like many Americans, I struggle to understand why a country as rich in resources and opportunities as the U.S. still has one of the highest poverty rates of any advanced country. So when I spotted Matthew Desmond's Poverty by America on bookshelves, I immediately bought myself a copy, not willing to wait the 2+ months to obtain one of the copies stocked by our local library system. (Because apparently I'm not the only one with similar questions!) Figured Desmond's credentials as an award winning author (his Evicted won a Pulitzer Prize), in addition to the book's hefty 76 pages of annotated footnotes, was likely to ensure a reasoned and data-supported analysis of the issue.

As I'd hoped, the first half of the book spoke directly to my question, addressing the various reasons that poverty persists in the U.S. These chapters left me appropriately enlightened and appalled. The second half of the book then went on to propose realistic solutions, one of which is, basically, "get the word out!" Desmond strongly believes that ongoing politic rhetoric, ignorance, and disinformation mask the fact that poverty reduction unites and benefits us all. For this reason, I'm hoping he won't mind if I use this blog post as a way to "spread the word" about the actual factors that contribute to endemic poverty in this nation, with an eye towards creating an informed populace that will demand that our elected officials support initiatives that lead to actual, lasting poverty emancipation. 

To be clear, the prose below is mine (I've summarized Desmond's main ideas in my own, much less artful/precise words), but the ideas and references are all Desmond's. If this topic intrigues you, I strongly urge you to go to the primary source, his Poverty by America, in order to access a wider, deeper, and much more informed analysis of the issues presented below. 

As the title suggests, am dedicating this blog post to a discussion of some of the factors that perpetuate poverty in the U.S. Look for my next blog post, in which I'll lay out "10+ Initiatives for Reducing Poverty in the United States," inspired by the latter chapter's of Desmond's narrative. A little hope to leaven the bleakness of the list below! 

10+ reasons that poverty is endemic in the U.S.:

1. It's profitable. The first thing to understand is that, here in the U.S., poverty is a profit industry. A partial list of some of the folks who profit:  
1. Landlords, who exploit the desperation of their impoverished customers, lackadaisical oversight, and laws very clearly weighted in their favor to charge above-market rates for often substandard housing. Turns out people will put up with a lot of inequality when their only other option is homelessness. 
2. Banks, who profit from overdraft and other fees.
3. Predatory lenders (payday loan companies, pawnshops) that exploit the fact that many poor people don't have sufficient cash flow to maintain bank accounts and are desperate enough to entangle themselves in loans with interest rates of up to 500%.
4. Lawyers hired by the poor in order to obtain the government aid (SSDI, SSI) that they are legally entitled to - lawyers only too happy to provide their services on spec in exchange a portion of the funds their clients are awarded.
5. Politicians, who divert federal funding meant for the poor to fund their own pork projects (ex: concerts, stadiums) or to forward their own political agendas (ex: abstinence education in schools). (Do a quick internet search on how Mississippi used welfare money to pay for a volleyball complex and concerts by a gospel singer!) 
6. Employers, who understand that the easiest way to motivate workers to accept unacceptable jobs (low pay, ruinous hours, unpaid overtime, unsafe conditions) is to make sure their only other choice is hunger and homelessness.
7. "Sin industries" such as tobacco, alcohol, gambling, and the lottery, that exploit the self-destructive behaviours of desperate populations.
2. Predatory housing. Many poor in America pay more in rent than they would in mortgage payments. So why aren't they buying homes - one of the most reliable paths to wealth generation in this country? One reason: banks don't make enough profit off of small mortgages to make it worth their while. Another reason: many poor are required to conduct their transactions in cash (landlords/purchasers won't accept any other form of payment), making it difficult for them to establish credit.  
3. Exclusionary zoning laws. When redlining was nixed, many cities simply switched to exclusionary zoning, figuring that if they couldn't keep "undesirable elements" out, then they could at least exclude the types of housing that attract "undesirable elements" - apartments, subsidized housing. These zoning laws have the effect of concentrating people living in poverty in neighborhoods that are underserved by commercial and public infrastructure, which in turn exposes them to factors that perpetuate poverty, including: 
1. Over-priced food. In neighborhoods with no grocery stores, people can't leverage warehouse pricing or comparison shop for good deals. And dollar stores, despite their name, are no bargain, forcing people to pay $1 for products that cost much less in other outlets. 
2. Under-performing schools. Schools in poor neighborhoods have difficulty attracting the programs, funding, and teachers that schools in wealthier neighborhoods insist upon. 
4. We make accessing benefits too hard. Contrary to the opinion of many Americans, our country's poor are actually pretty bad at being welfare dependent. Every year, billions of dollars remain unclaimed by people who are qualified for the benefits. Why?
1. We make it extremely hard for people to apply for benefits. Forms are complicated, directions are wordy, guidance is contradictory, and the process often requires access to the internet, overlooking the fact that poor populations often have limited access to the web (no computers, cellphones with expensive data plans). 
2. Our current administrative processes are so inefficient, underfunded, and overwhelmed, qualified applicants are often required to reapply multiple times before being found eligible. All too often, the only recourse the poor have is to hire a lawyer to advocate for them, which means forking over 25% of what they win to lawyers who are most definitely *not* poor.
5. Companies are incented to exploit workers. Shareholders and the stock markets reward profit without much caring how that profit is extracted. One of the easiest ways to increase profit? Reduce labor costs, a process that is facilitated by:
1. A minimum wage that ensures workers remain susceptible to hunger and homelessness, incenting them to continue working no matter how difficult/unjust the conditions.
2. Exploitation of workers (often ELLs or undereducated) either unfamiliar with their legally protected rights or unwilling/unable to demand them. 
3. Mandatory non-compete clauses that limit the ability of workers to sell their skills to the highest bidder. Your employer at Jiffy Lube is cheating you out of overtime? That non-compete agreement they forced you to sign as a condition of employment means you can't apply for a similar job with a competitor.  To be clear, we're not talking about tech workers here: we're talking about hair stylists, factory workers, fast food workers, car salesmen, and nurses. These employers aren't concerned about proprietary information; they're using non-competes as a way to trap employees and limit wage competition. 
4. A legal system that is designed to discourage collective action through laws that give employers wide scope to discourage unionization and punish potential organizers. 
6. Unfair taxation policies. While our income tax is ostensibly "progressive" (based on income level), many taxes - sales taxes, property taxes - are not. In fact, the % of overall income that poor people pay in taxes ends up being almost as high as what our wealthiest citizens pay. (If you're thinking that it feels counterproductive to give poor people public assistance and then collect 25% of it back in taxes, then you're right.)
7. Our health care situation. Obamacare and Medicare provide some coverage, but few of these policies are free or comprehensive, and people who live on the margins of poverty - just enough to get by - often don't qualify for the subsidies they need. Exacerbating this situation is the fact that people who live in poverty often have more extreme, endemic health issues, due to (among other factors) poor nutrition, lack of appropriate preventative care, and inability to pay for prescriptions over time. 
8. Our child care situation. It's impossible to overestimate the impact of our country's child care system on the poor. Child care can consume up to 50% of the take home earnings generated by a typical minimum wage job. Assistance programs that require single parents to work in order to qualify for benefits are ensuring that those single parents will remain impoverished. (Meanwhile, due to our broken and politicized healthcare system, women who wish to delay pregnancy often lack the means to maintain sustained access to birth control.) 
9. The way we do jail. Jail may or may not rehabilitate prisoners, but it does pretty much doom them to lives of poverty. Untrained in any usable skills, disqualified by employers reluctant to hire them, often disconnected from the support system of their families by policies that house prisoners in jails far removed from their homes & restrict phone calls ... these individuals face often insurmountable odds when it comes to building wealth. 
10. Programs that accommodate poverty without alleviating it. Too many of our social programs - including food stamps, housing assistance, and health care - are designed to help the poor survive rather than help them build wealth. 
11. Absence of choice. One of the least understood but most insidious factors trapping people in poverty: absence of choice. A huge part of being an efficient consumer is being able to avail oneself of choice:  the choice to join a discount warehouse, to visit a doctor that's preapproved by your insurance, to select a bank that doesn't impose steep fees, to shop for bargains utilizing information accessible via the internet. But these options often aren't available to people who lack access to reliable transportation and/or internet access, who can't afford to take time off work, or who are simply too exhausted after their 60-80hr work weeks to engaged in informed consumerism.

Book Look: Skeptic, by Michael Shermer

Shermer spent time as the author of a regular feature on "scientific skepticism" in the magazine Scientific American, which he's spun into a career as "That Skeptic Guy." This is a collection of his Scientific American essays (each ~2 pgs long, designed for quick reading), which he's divided into the following themes:

* Science - Essays that explore the strengths and corruptions of scientific method

* Skepticism - Essays about the challenges of pseudoscience and the art of skepticism

* Pseudoscience/quackery - Essays about why people believe weird things

* Paranormal/supernatural - Essays debunking ESP, Atlantis, spiritualism, and more

* Aliens/UFOs - Essays debunking UFOs and claims of extraterrestrial intelligence

* Alternative medicines - Essays debunking a range of health fads and trends

* Psychology & the brain - Essays debunking pop psychology and exploring the science behind intuition, luck, bias, and more

* Human nature - Essays exploring misconceptions about human nature

* Evolution and creationism - Essays exploring evolution denialism

* Science, religion, miracles and God - Essays endeavoring to define the space in which religion and science can coexist

One important thing to know before picking this up is that these essays are getting long in tooth. The book was published in 2016, which means the essays are even older. Many of the things that were high profile back in the late 1900s/early 2000s (ESP, cryonics) hit as dated now, while many of today's most controversial topics - climate change, vaccine denial, election denial - are unaddressed. Nor are they very "deep," but not sure that's his fault - how deep can you get in 1000 words or less?

Another issue I had was growing skepticism that Shermer isn't always as skeptical as he likes to represent. Couldn't help but note a tendency to give things the *he* believes in - nutritional supplements, favorite colleagues/authors - a bit of a pass.

The good news is that you don't need a lot of scientific background to access these essays, many of which are as entertaining as they are information.

In the main, would characterize this as a worthwhile read, and a timeless reminder of the many ways in which culture, cognitive bias, rhetoric, and misrepresentation can circumvent critical thinking.

Book Look: Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro

This is my third book by this author, and I haven't been disappointed yet. Don't let the deceptively simple storytelling of this novel (plain prose, accessible characters) fool you - this is a subtle and devastating exploration of what happens when humans normalize dehumanization. No matter how many justifications we offer, no matter how institutionalized the process, the price we inevitably pay is our souls.

For those who have strong opinions about dystopian fiction, be aware that Ishiguro barely mentions society, law, politics, or science in this tale, instead focusing on the paradoxes that define humanity: our intellect, our creativity, our compassion - but also our ability to rationalize selfishness and cruelty.

Have heard people criticize the initial chapters, devoted to the adolescent affairs of three students attending Halesham Academy, a seemingly idyllic British boarding school, as simplistic and slow. Overlooking the important character development that is occurring, the sheer ordinariness of these chapters is critical to Ishiguro's purpose. In a world where clones are seen as commodities, it's critical for Ishiguro to establish that these characters are fully-realized adolescents suffering all the familiar milestones of adolescence: insecurity, bullying, young love. It's also necessary for him to regularize his readers to a world in which organ harvesting from clones isn't just permitted, but unchallenged.

In many ways this book reminded me of the author's Remains of the Day. Both books feature protagonists who have accepted, without questioning, the societal/cultural expectations foisted upon them, whose inability to communicate jeopardizes their hope of personal happiness, and who come to appreciate, too late, the price they have paid for their compliance. Questions this novel poses: To what extent do the needs of the many offset the rights of the few? To what extent is it realistic to expect socially and psychologically marginalized populations to assert agency over their fates? Can palliative thoughtfulness offset the guilt of prescribed cruelty? I'm reminded of "humane cattle chutes" - does concealing the killing machines from cows until the last minute somehow absolve us of blame for turning them into hamburgers?

A heads up for anyone who hasn't yet read the book: this is a story told not through hyperbole or hit-you-over-the-head-irony, but through micro-expressions and peripheral vision. If you want to appreciate the subtlety of Ishiguro's craft, don't let yourself be so distracted by what's going on the foreground that you lose track of what's happening in the background. And be sure to leave some time after you're done to let the implications of this "deceptively simple" fable sink in.

Book Look: The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green

 Despite the book’s title, few of these essays actually discuss the impact of human activity on geology, climate, or environment. Instead, Green appears to be using the term “Anthropocene” as a synonym for “modern culture,” and “Anthropocene Reviewed” as a pretense for pulling together a series of essays that don’t otherwise appear to have much in common. Some of the essays do focus on what you might call “Anthropocene-adjacent” topics like history, nature, science/technology, and anthropology. But the vast majority of the essays are biographical - personal anecdotes, travels, mental/physical health challenges, favorites (favorite song, soccer team, soda, video game, etc.) - creating the overall impression of an episodic memoir rather than “essays on a human centered planet.”

Having said that, I suspect most people won’t mind the “bait and switch.” The essays are stuffed with engagingly nerdy trivia (the history of Edmund Halley, the evolution of the QWERTY keyboard, the antecedents of ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ the origin story of teddy bears), funny stories (his brief career as an Academic Dacathalete), and nostalgia (scratch ‘n’ sniff stickers!). And goodness knows Green’s an engaging writer (as sales of his novels would suggest): honest, empathetic, and ultimately hopeful.

Green’s “gimmick” is to end each essay with a kitschy “1-5 star” rating: the city of Indianapolis gets 4 stars; Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, two stars; etc. Works well enough for essays that are about things, but begins to feel strained/labored when applied to essays that are mostly about ideas or emotions (“What’s the meaning of life? How does one find hope in the midst of despair?”) Admit Green’s more philosophical essays left me cold. There’s nothing overtly off-putting about Green’s “how lucky we all are to be alive!” affirmations, but neither did I find them to be particularly original, insightful, or convincing.

Apparently Green penned most of these essays during the height of the pandemic, and that’s the vibe I got: that Green’s basically taking us with him on a stream-of-consciousness journey through months of inactivity-spawned contemplations and reflections, augmented by internet research, more-or-less relevant diversions, and lots (and lots) of literary quotations. The result is a rather uneven collection, and definitely not what I expected based on the title/summary, but ultimately found more here to like than dislike.

20+ Reasons that Gifted Kids Struggle to Reach Their Potential

Congratulations! Your child has been identified as gifted. You're home-free! No fights over report cards. No worries about them getting into a good college. Heck, they'll probably be able to take care of you in your old age. You've won the jackpot. 

Not so fast. Giftedness is the word we give to people who exist at the most extreme levels of standard deviation at the right edge of bell curve that describes human intelligence.  In other words, they are defined by the fact that they are NOT normal. And in a world that's been customized to meet the needs of normals, this can present any number of challenges.  Indeed, these challenges can be so formidable, research consistently shows that up to 50% of gifted individuals experience persistent underachievement.

Tomes have been written about each of these individually, but I've never found a source that listed all of them in one place - which is unfortunate, because most gifted individuals are going to experience a combination of these, and they can interact in unsuspected ways.  If you're the parent of a gifted individual, an adult that works with gifted individuals, or gifted yourself, I recommend that you keep this list handy.  Sometimes all that's needed to help is a bit of clarity and understanding; other times, however, struggling gifted individuals may need intercession in order to help them appropriately cope with the very real challenges that they face.   

1. Imposter syndrome/self-doubt. One of the most common issues faced by gifted individuals is the fear that they aren't as smart as other people think they are. This is often exacerbated by constant messaging from others telling them: "This should be easy for you." Unavoidably, as soon as something *isn't* easy for them, they begin to doubt themselves. Many gifted individuals report having spent their lives in a state of constant anxiety, afraid that at any time they might be "exposed" as being less gifted than people assume them to be.
2. Inflexible mindset. As a result of imposter syndrome, gifted individuals may exhibit an unwillingness to take risks. They would rather go for the sure 'A' than try something challenging and risk a lower grade, an outcome that (they fear) might reveal them to be "imposters." This can prevent them from taking academic, intellectual, or career risks.  
3. Perfectionism.  In moderation, perfectionism can drive gifted individuals to explore the limits of their abilities. Taken to an unhealthy extreme, some gifted individuals may begin measuring their self-worth by external evaluations such as grades or earnings. In excess, perfectionism can cause gifted individuals deliberately to underachieve because they perceive being considered lazy or disorganized as preferable to the risk of being perceived as less than perfect by themselves and others.  
4. Competing/conflicting cultural/racial/peer expectations. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs reminds us that the most urgent priority in the lives of all humans, including gifted individuals, is their need to feel accepted, safe, and loved.  If a gifted individual is striving to be accepted by a group that devalues education due to cultural, racial or peer norms, then it's not uncommon for them to suppress or sabotage their giftedness in order to conform and be accepted.
5. Stereotype Bias. Stereotype bias combines several of the factors above, and describes a situation in which a gifted individual belonging to a specific cultural/racial/peer group becomes unnerved by the idea that they are going to be seen as "representing" their peer group.  This can lead to anxiety and a desire to withdraw from scrutiny.  
6. Lack of Role Models.  Related to the above, gifted individuals representing minority populations may struggle to envision themselves as assuming gifted roles in academia and the professional world because of the lack of same-minority role models to serve as examples, or even mentors.  Many minority STEM professionals continue to report feelings of insecurity due to the lack of existing pathways into STEM for people of their culture or ethnicity.
7. Competing/conflicting gender expectations. In some peer groups, gender expectations can interfere with giftedness.  For instance, there may be an expectation that girls eschew academic pursuits in favor of more nurturing family roles.  Many studies suggest that, even here in the U.S., a persistent stereotype that "boys are better at math and science" continues to limit opportunities for women in STEM careers. 
8. Competing/conflicting family expectations. In some cases, family priorities may overwhelm all other priorities, including academic achievement. For instance, a gifted individual might be expected to set aside personal aspirations in order to participate in their family's business/concern, contribute income to the family, or supervise/raise family members.   
9. Poverty. Individuals who grow up in poverty are more likely to experience an early childhood deficient of rich background experiences and content such as attending high performing neighborhood schools, growing up with books in the house, or participating in discussion with educated, literate adults. This can create gaps in background knowledge that can make it harder for these gifted individuals to access critical thinking tasks, leading to confusion, frustration, and anxiety.
10. Emotional overexcitability.  Gifted individuals are more likely to experience emotional overexcitability, a tendency to experience emotion in a heightened way.  This can manifest itself as extreme empathy for the plight of others, a heightened sense of right and wrong, in intolerance for injustice, a tendency to experience emotional extremes, and misplaced guilt/remorse. For such individuals, a single nightly world news broadcast or commercial about neglected animals can be enough to trigger extreme anxiety. 
11. Psychomotor overexcitability. Gifted individuals can display extreme psychomotor symptoms, including compulsive/impulsive behaviours, extreme competitiveness, and overactivity.  These individuals can become frustrated when these natural psychomotor extremes are misidentified as ADHD or immaturity and inappropriately accommodated - or even punished.
12. Sensual overexcitability.  Gifted individuals can have heightened reactions to sensory stimuli such as music, art, literature, or natural beauty.  They may overreact to sensory inputs they find annoying, or crave sensory stimuli that provide comfort or pleasure. These behaviours can create confusion, anxiety, and frustration.  
13. Intellectual overexcitability.  Gifted individuals can exhibit a tendency to engage in intellectual debate and confrontation, which can trigger disputes and create an impression of combativeness. 
14. Imaginational overexcitability. Gifted individuals often possess rich and complex imaginations, which can manifest as excessive daydreaming or extreme immersion in fantasy worlds - worlds that they have been exposed to through fiction or games, or that they have invented on their own. These obsessions with fantasy worlds can be a blessing (as when they provide a common interest upon which to base friendships) or a burden (as when their obsession with fantasy distracts them from other pursuits, or is perceived by peers as "odd").
15. Asynchronous development. While it is not uncommon for gifted children to exhibit levels of maturity beyond their years, this is *not* always the case. It is also fairly common for gifted children to develop asynchronously - to acquire critical developmental skills at an unequal rate, possibly even at a slower rate than age peers. Areas that may develop asynchronously include social/emotional skills, language & communication, cognitive skills, and fine/gross motor skills. This can cause intense frustration in adult guardians/teachers who are expecting a uniformly heightened level of development, but even more so in gifted students who may, for instance, read 6 years above grade level but still burst into tears at their inability to tie their own shoelaces.  (FYI, studies show that the slowest skill to develop is often written communication.)
16. Precocious reading.  One extremely common attribute of gifted children is a love of reading, with their choice of reading material often outstripping their chronological age. Their strong reading skills may make these texts accessible, but unfortunately does not guarantee that they will possess the emotional maturity to deal with the issues that may arise in these texts. They may find themselves unable to deal with the intense emotions aroused by such disturbing themes as injustice, violence, and dystopian futures.
17. Introversion. Studies indicate that the majority of gifted individuals are introverts. This can make it harder for them to engage with peers and may lead to feelings of isolation and depression.
18. Trouble Making Friends.  A combination of several factors can make it difficult for gifted individuals to establish a supportive circle of friends, to include introversion, asynchronously developing social skills, "odd" overexcitabilities, and the statistical lack of cognitive peers. Obviously individuals with very different cognitive levels can establish long and lasting friendships, but studies suggest that gifted individuals derive important social and emotional benefits from being able to interact with others at their cognitive level, which can be difficult to accommodate. 
19. Co-morbid conditions. Studies show that extreme intelligence often occurs in conjunction with other mental "abnormalities," such as OCD, depression, autism, and bipolar disorder.  A challenge in accurately diagnosing the existence of these co-morbid conditions is that gifted individuals are often clever enough to accommodate the most obvious symptoms so that they are not immediately obvious. Another challenge is that these conditions may appear as "shadows" that influence rather than override behaviour. However, the impact of these co-morbid conditions can cause confusion, frustration, anxiety, and lead to the adoption of maladaptive coping strategies such as self-medication. 
20. Multipotentiality.  This is another one of those benefits with a dark side: while it's great that gifted individuals often excel in multiple fields (academics, sports, arts, leadership, etc.), this can be a burden for these individuals when it comes to figuring out which of their areas of expertise to pursue. Anxiety and frustration can mount as different stakeholders (parents, coaches, directors, mentors) urge their imperatives on individuals who do not have enough hours in the day to gratify everyone ... much less themselves.
21. Managing adult expectations.  Gifted children self report that parents are their #1 source of support ... but also their #1 source of stress! Pressure to meet the (often unrealistically) high expectations of parents can lead to anxiety, frustration, anger, and depression. This can become particularly problematical when a parents' expectations for their child are a mismatch with the child's interests and passions - for instance, a child whose passion is art but whose parents are demanding that they take a pre-law course load. It can be tempting for adults to treat gifted children as "little adults," without making allowances for the fact their children are experiencing the same distractions, hormones, and inconsistencies as their age peers.
22. Lack of challenging content. Another huge source of stress for gifted children is having to endure lessons that provide no intellectual challenge.  After a while, gifted students repeatedly forced to sit through undemanding classes will conclude (rightly) that school has little of value to offer them, and their boredom and frustration may lead them into trouble.  
23. Lack of challenging collaborators.  While it may be tempting for teachers to pair more capable students with less capable students in hopes that the former will somehow "set a good example" and "pull up" their less capable colleagues, the actual result (studies show) is that gifted students end up doing most of the work and learn nothing. Unless they are consistently paired with peers working at approximately the same cognitive level as themselves, the outcome can be similar to that described above.
24. Maladaptive coping strategies. This challenge certainly isn't limited to gifted individuals: faced with anxiety, depression, anger or other frustrations, anyone might find themselves attracted to maladaptive coping strategies - tantrums/outbursts, unhealthy habits, inappropriate attention-seeking, self-medication using alcohol/drugs. However, there is a tendency for people to assume that gifted individuals are "too smart" to fall into these psychological traps, without understanding that the challenges faced by gifted individuals - to include poor self-esteem and constant external pressure to succeed - are precisely the types of stressors most likely to trigger maladaptive coping strategies. 

I hope this list proves informative and/or helpful!  Let me know in the comments if there's anything I've missed.

20 Things We Should Be Worried About But We Aren't (Yet) ...

One thing this decade seems to have plenty of: stuff to worry about. Political disruptions. Climate change. Pandemics. North Korean nukes. Trade wars. Terrorism.  Opioids.  Immigration.  Genocides. Refugee crises. Gun violence.  Russian hacking.  Sexual harassment. #BlackLivesMatter. Healthcare. The national deficit. Bitcoin bubbles. Privacy. Trash gyres. Rainforest destruction. GMOs. Beehive Colony Collapse Disorder. The approaching Singularity.

Just in case you were beginning to worry that you weren’t worrying enough, I’ve compiled a list of concerns that aren’t dramatic enough for the front page, but that will do perfectly well if you’ve been getting too much healthy sleep and need something to keep you up at night.  (And if 20 nightmare scenarios aren't enough, I recommend the above book, What Should We Be Worried About, a collection of essays in which really smart people talk about what keeps them up at night.  Guaranteed to make you lose sleep.)

1. AN UNFAIR AND UNEQUAL EDUCATION. Is it a coincidence that political corruption is most rampant in states that have the lowest test scores?  I worry that state funding of education creates a system that incentivizes corrupt politicians to deliberately undermine schools.  After all, who’s more likely to continue to elect corrupt politicians – a well-educated citizenry or a bunch of kids who never developed critical thinking skills and who, therefore, are stupid enough to believe the election commercials? Unlike many teachers, I was a big fan of No Child Left Behind because it required at least some accountability for educating students.  But ever since the Supreme Court began ruling that anything that isn't explicitly stated in the Constitution isn't protected, we're a decision away from states deciding to eliminate mandatory public schooling entirely. One of the few sacrifices of a well-functioning democracy is that it requires an educated citizenry capable of making considered decisions. We need to stop forgetting that.
2. REALITY DENIAL, aka “Just a moment while I interrupt your evidence-based reality with my unsubstantiated opinions.” I worry that in their rush to ensure “fair representation,” media outlets are creating the impression that opinions deserve as much weight as reality.  There’s a famous quote by Asimov: “There is a cult of ignorance […] measured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as [valid] as your knowledge.” Every time media organizations allow newsmakers to express "alternative facts" without calling them out (or, even worse, treat these alternative facts as legitimate) they reinforce the fallacy that opinion is somehow equivalent to truth.  In a world where technology makes it all too easy for people to bypass legitimate forms of news in favor of self-validating and self-reinforcing "alternative realities," I worry that we are at risk of forgetting what "truth" is, and why it matters. 
3. KIDS THAT CAN’T PASS THE MARSHMALLOW TEST.  You’ve heard of the marshmallow test, right? You put a child and a marshmallow in the same room, then promise the child that if they don’t touch the marshmallow until you return, you’ll let them have two.  In other words, twice the marshmallow.  100% more marshmallow. And yet an alarming number of the kids, lacking the tiny amount of self-control required to resist the urge, consume the marshmallow at once. I worry that in a world where video games now incorporate “mini-games” so you don’t have to wait until the end to win something, where mature adults whine when websites take more than an instant to upload, where drivers explode into road-rage when intersections are slow to clear, and where one-day delivery still isn’t quick enough – in other words, in a world where  instant gratification has become an expectation rather than the exception – what hope is there that future generations will possess the patience and willingness to embrace near-term sacrifice in order to ensure longer-term gain?
4. GENERATIONAL HOMOGENIZATION.  I worry that current and future generations are losing their unique identities.  It’s hard to witness my little nieces and nephews watch Disney movies (some of them over 70yrs old at this point), to listen to my sons stream Spotify’s “I Love the ‘80S!” radio station as they do homework, to watch my students cycling through every unfortunate fashion trend from the past 50 years – and not worry about generational homogenization. Back when I was a kid I remember attending ‘60s parties (everyone wore poodle skirts), ‘70s parties (everyone wore hippie finery), ‘80s parties (think big hair and disco).  Then came the millennia and suddenly – thanks to DVD players, internet, and streaming sites like Hulu – teens aren’t inventing their own culture so much as appropriating all the cultures that came before them. When I’m not worrying about what the hell I’m going to wear if – God help me - I ever get invited to a ‘00s party, I worry about the lasting social and cultural impact of generations with no unique, original identity to call their own
5. Speaking of which: CULTURAL HOMOGINIZATION.  I worry that the same forces that are hastening globalization – internet, multinational corporations – are hastening the homogenization of international cultural identities. Remember when American cities like San Francisco, Boston, and Nashville used to have their own unique personalities? Now, with the exception of a few districts, these cities are practically indistinguishable, overtaken by identical chain restaurants, big box stores, and cars.  How long before every country has its own Hollywood/Bollywood, its own food courts featuring a variety of faux-ethnic cuisine, roads overrun by identical cars, store windows filled with identical fashions, radios playing identical playlists?  I weep to imagine a world in which globalization robs us of cultural diversity and identity.
6. IS IT LIVE OR IS IT MEMOREX?  I worry that we aren’t ready for the onslaught of virtual reality about to descend upon us.  Keep in mind that our brains are so susceptible to intense emotion that grief has been known to trigger heart attacks, childhood trauma to trigger life-long mental illness, and intense fear/horror to trigger PTSD.  And then there’s the flipside: brains so giddy on opioids that their owners will literally self-destruct rather than do without.  In other words, we humans are pretty fragile vessels when it comes to handling intense emotion. So what happens when super-intense virtual reality experiences inadvertently trigger these responses; or, perhaps even worse, when our species begins developing a tolerance for them? What happens when natural beauty fails to enchant as completely as virtual beauty; when actual violence fails to appall when compared to the excesses of virtual violence; when the burdens of actual life pale in comparison with the non-stop entertainment of virtual life?
7. Speaking of which: AUTONOMOUS WARFARE.  I worry that anything that reduces the social or emotion costs of war, runs the risk of perpetuating war.  There’s a reason the minds of soldiers are so easily scarred by warfare: it’s a traumatic, grotesque, and wholly unnatural act to slay a fellow human. That makes the very best disincentive for waging war, war itself.  By gradually transitioning to a system of remote warfare, where soulless drones, submarines, and long-range missile systems deliver armaments to GPS coordinates rather than human settlements, however, we have created a more politically palatable system of killing.  People are still dying horrific deaths, it’s just that we don’t have to be there watching as they suffer and die.  Whoever developed PTSD from watching a blip on a screen? By placing violence at an arm’s distance, I worry that we’re making war socially, emotionally, and politically palatable, allowing us to cling to the pretense of “civilization” even as we continue to commit barbaric acts of violence.
8. VIRAL VIRUSES.  I worry that viruses (the microscopic type, not the digital type – though they can be lethal too) are going to take us out.  In case you’ve forgotten everything you learned about viruses in 7^th grade, let me remind you that these are scary dudes. From the standpoint of evolution, they were here before us and they've used that lead time to figure out how outlive pretty much everything else.  They laughed off the last five mass extinctions as if they were hiccups. Unlike bacteria, viruses hide inside your cells so your immune system has difficulty finding them. They mutate rapidly, making them a moving target, they can't be killed by antibiotics because they're not living organisms, and they're wicked contagious because the only way they can propagate is to constantly infect new hosts ... all of which enables them to sweep through populations like tsunamis - sudden, violent, unstoppable (see: flu, HIV, ebola). I worry that in our natural state of hubris, we humans aren't taking viruses seriously, at our peril. 
9. Speaking of which: LONGEVITY.  I worry that people are living too long.  Sure, immortality sounds great, and it would solve that nagging problem of how to explore space when the shortest trip to a habitable planet takes longer than the average human lifespan – but in practical terms, immortality would be a disaster in almost every conceivable way.  How can we possibly control Earth’s growing population if new babies continue to be born but no one dies? How do we find jobs, homes, food, water for all those extra people?  More abstractly, how do we grow socially, creatively or intellectually as a race unless we keep innovating – which process which requires a steady turnover of new brains entering a given field?  (See also: Cultural Homogenization.) How does natural selection continue to improve the survivability of our species if our birthrate slows to a crawl?  How do we find the money to research the diseases of youth if most of the Earth is ruled by elders who have the power/money to divert medical research to their own needs?  How do we meet the health and social needs of aging populations without burdening their children – essentially robbing them of their chance to live independently because, from the age of ~40 on, they’re tethered to the needs of elderly relatives? How do we fill all that extra time in a meaningful way, so that everyone doesn’t go bonkers from boredom?  Plus, in the immortal words of Queen, who wants to live forever when love must die?
10. SPACE JUNK. I worry that if we keep launching stuff into space, it’s going to become impossible to ensure the safety of the satellites and other objects up there that we rely on to do important stuff like facilitate satellite communications, track major weather events, and make GPS work.  I get that space is vast, and the chances of collision are small.  However, I’m also betting our satellite systems don’t have a lot of built in redundancy, especially since nearly all of them were built by the lowest bidder.
11. Speaking of which: GPS HACKING.  Has anyone been paying attention to just how much we’ve come to rely on GPS? It helps guide airplanes to airports, fishermen to where the fish are, and weapons to where the enemies are; it sets our clocks; it supports accurate mapping of weather phenomenon; and it keeps us from getting lost when our doctors relocate to new office buildings.  And yet, the system is so antiquated and vulnerable to hacking that even the U.S. military is urging its branches to develop their own backup systems. Think about all the money we’re spending on “smart weapons” that require GPS guidance; now consider that all those weapons could be rendered unusable by $20 worth of electrical components available from Amazon
12. THE IMPENDING MAGNETIC SHIFT.  I worry about what happens when Earth’s magnetic poles decide to swap – as in, the north pole becomes the south pole and visa versa.   This has happened periodically throughout Earth’s history and, geologically speaking, we’re overdue for next shift.  In fact, there’s ample evidence that a switch is coming: the magnetic north pole has been shifting up to 5miles per year, a traditional sign that polar shift is imminent.  This is a much (much) bigger deal than just having to recalibrate all the compasses in the world. Earth’s magnetic “shield” is all that’s preventing deadly subatomic particles from pelting all life on earth to extinction. And while the shield doesn’t actually disappear during polar shifts, it does becomes significantly weaker, meaning some stuff is going to slip through.  I’m not sure tinfoil hats are going to be enough.
13. Speaking of which: ANTICS IN ANTARCTICA.  I promised myself I wouldn’t mention climate change here, since everyone’s worried about climate change. What bothers me is that I don’t hear anyone talking about what happens when Antarctica melts.  Is anyone paying attention to what’s underneath all that ice? Copper, iron, oil, coal, silver, gold, platinum and … wait for it … stores of unexploited rare earth minerals, the ones that facilitate our advanced electronics. At various times countries as diverse as Argentina, France, Australia, Chile, Norway and the U.K. have claimed ownership of bits and pieces of the continent, before they all buried the hatchet and signed The Antarctic Treaty in 1959 agreeing that no one would make any more territorial claims. How long do you think everyone’s going to keep holding hands and humming It’s A Small World once those gold deposits defrost? A hint of things to come: Russia is already fortifying their "research stations" with troops. 
14. TOO MUCH CONNECTIVITY.  I worry about what happens when we connect all our important systems to a single grid and then the grid goes down. While the whole Y2K thing was much ado about nothing, I worry that we’ve too quickly forgotten the reason we were worried – that as our communications systems (satellites and internet), banking systems (encrypted trading systems running over wireless), navigation/weapons systems (GPS) and social systems (smart phones) become increasingly interconnected, the collapse of any one of these systems might bring them all down. Forget North Korean nukes – I fear we’re one well-aimed computer virus away from the collapse of civilization as we know it.
15. Speaking of which: WHO’S BACKING THIS ?#$ UP?  I worry about what happens to all that lovely digital data if the electricity goes out.  Recently I was at a presentation by one of Nook’s designers, who happened to mention, in passing, that individual servers in server farms have a three year life span. Think about that. Servers have to be replaced every THREE years.  Which means one year of inadequate electrical supply could wipe out one third of all our bits and bytes; two years might put paid to up to two thirds of our cumulative digital wisdom, and a third year could wipe it all out entirely.  If young adult authors are to be believed, three years sans electricity isn’t even reaching when it comes to potential dystopian futures.  Just in case, I’m hoarding books and printing out my photos.
16. Speaking of which: WHO CONTROLS OUR DIGITAL CONTENT?  Even supposing our data survives a digital apocalypse, we’re still not out of the woods. I’m not talking about digital hacking, which is on everyone’s radar and thus fails to qualify for this list. I’m talking about the more nefarious forms of digital alteration, perhaps introduced under the guise of profit (“I bet we’d sell more copies of literature classics if we omit the boring chapters!”), political correctness (“Rather than risk causing any emotional distress, let’s just remove ALL the scenes that might trigger people”), or patriotism (“If we release those statistics about civilian deaths, popular support for this war might wane).  The problem with digital information is that it’s so easily modified, that modifications are so incredibly difficult to detect, and that excuses for engaging in digital modification may present as innocent, possibly even logical.  I worry that as our society moves towards digitizing every form of communication – from journals to journalism, from interpersonal communications to entertainment, from commerce to conversations – “digital alteration” may gain the power not just to alter our perception of reality, but reality itself.
17. SCIENCE FICTION: NOT JUST FOR NERDS.  I worry that we’re not paying enough attention to science fiction writers. These guys think about the future for a living, and if past experience is any guide, they often do a scarily good job of projecting potential outcomes of current technology trends.  Take Isaac Asimov, who back in the 1940s invented the 3 Laws of Robotics that still guide robotic engineering today.  (Seriously: look them up.)  Take Ray Bradbury’s short story, The Sound of Thunder, from which the Butterfly Effect derives – a precept that has come to shape the way we think about time travel into the past.  Take 1984 and compare its use of surveillance and news jargon to what exists in the world today (“alternate facts!”).  More importantly, look at predictions that have been made by these guys that haven’t yet come true but that should serve as precautionary tales if we let them: Arthur C. Clarke’s Dial F for Frankenstein, in which a telephone network gains consciousness and gradually takes over the world’s financial, transportation, and communication systems; the implicit warning of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park against the hubris of assuming we can control nature (or, substitute the implicit warning in his Prey against the hubris of assuming we can control nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and AI); or what Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 has to say about the dangers of eliminating texts that make us feel “uncomfortable” (think trigger warnings). Science fiction isn’t just a genre, it’s a think tank of great minds devoted to predicting possible future.  That’s why smart people read it, and why more of us should probably heed it.
18. Speaking of which: ROBOT SHORTAGES. While everyone else seems to be worried about too many robots, I’m worried we won’t have nearly enough – at least not enough of the sort capable of doing the work that actually needs doing.  Every time I turn on NPR, someone’s talking about how U.S. jobs are being replaced by robotics. Don’t worry about closing the immigration tap: those unfilled jobs will replaced by robots. Don’t worry about the U.S.’s unsustainable productivity figures: robots will take over when humans can’t keep up. My question is: who’s making all these robots? Moreover, who’s making them cheaply enough that it’s going to be affordable to put them to work landscaping, doing construction, and working at McDonalds?  It’s far more likely that robots will be taking over skilled jobs, the ones that pay the good money, leaving it to us humans to perform all those manual labor jobs.
19. A MORE PERFECT UNION? I worry that in our patriotism-fueled enthusiasm to spread Democracy throughout the world, we give up looking for other forms of government that might be better.  Consider: in a democratic system, every time a majority party wins an election, there’s a whole minority party in the background feeling royally resentful. If recent politics have taught us nothing else, we’ve learned just how resentful (and destructive) those minorities can be. European countries have tried dealing with this by implementing coalition systems, but is a compromise where no one gets what they want any better than at least some people getting the government they wanted? There’s got to be a better way, and I’d like to believe someone’s still looking for it.
20. THE DEATH OF CONTEMPLATION. Finally, I worry about the death of contemplation.  The problem isn’t that we’re working longer hours; the problem is that we now have an enormous choice of entertainments with which to waste away our remaining spare hours. Remember back in the “olden days,” when people with time on their hands engaged in such past-times as strolling, gardening, reading, playing music, writing letters, doing needlework, sitting by the fire getting warm?   All these occupations had one thing in common: they left time for thinking.  For letting the mind wander where it will. For musing, examining, questioning, conjecturing, imagining, evaluating, reasoning, reflecting.  Time for allowing ideas not just to stash themselves away for later retrieval, but to wander around a bit before arriving at their ultimate destination, allowing for the creation of fanciful juxtapositions and the discovery of curious connections.  The kind of reflection that leads not just to life-long learning, but to the development of wisdom.  I worry that in our rash to gain and share knowledge, we are forgetting the importance of giving ourselves to reflect upon what we’ve learned and thereby gaining wisdom.