Here is Everything We Don't Know (Extended)
[Music] This is green, this is red, and this is blue. But how can you tell what you're seeing as blue is the exact same thing as what I see as blue? We've named the colors to give us a way to communicate and reference them. But in reality, there's no way of knowing what you see is the same as what another person sees.
Even with the small steps and the giant leaps we've made as a species, there's still a lot to learn about Earth, life, and The Human Condition. There's still everything we don't know. On the 26th of February 2015, one picture of a dress divided the internet. You are seeing white and gold? Where are you looking at? I oh, just changed... White? Wa? No, you're kidding!
While some saw it as gold and white, others saw it as blue and black. Ever since then, there's been a number of repetitions of the same experience, expent either using the same sense—in this case, sight—or even other senses like hearing in the famous "Yanny or Laurel" debate. Laurel! These experiments remind us that there's no way for us to tell that you and I sense the same things. What I call red might just be what you call blue, and there might be someone out there who sees human beings with purple teeth but just refers to it as white.
71% of the entire Earth is covered by water. Humans are made up of about 60% water, potatoes 80%, watermelons 93%, and cucumbers 95%. It's very clear that water is essential for life on Earth, but we really don't know that much about water—not even about the very oceans we came from. In fact, we've only explored 5 to 10% of the Earth's oceans. The rest? Well, who knows what's down there. It's even scarier when you realize that fish like the blobfish and the barreleye fish belong to the slim percent of things that we've already discovered. The deeper you go, the crazier things seem to get.
What's at the bottom of the ocean? For the most part, we just don't know. But back on the surface, countries that are bordered by water use something called coastlines to mark their territory. The coast is the land along the sea, and the boundary between the coast and the sea is known as a coastline. So how long is the US coastline or any other coastline in the world?
The answer is... well, again, we don't really know. Coastlines constantly curve and cut in and out. Even the smallest deviations from a straight line can add distance, and over time these small distances add up. Some of these features are massive, like bays, while others are minuscule. Now, measuring each and every little crevice isn't really efficient, so surveyors cut corners and straighten rough edges, and easly manageable lines.
If you do a quick Google search of the measurement of any coastline, you'll find a lot of different answers. They all cut corners just differently. Humanity, as a species, though? Well, we've done really well for ourselves. When in a pinch, we invent something to push us through. We made clothes when the weather was harsh, shelters so we could be safe from wildlife to rest and recuperate, weapons to hunt for food, money to replace pure bartering.
What about fire? Was fire a discovery or an invention? And music? Music has been described by scientists as a relatively recent invention by humans. It's believed that music helped our ancestors to bring together a close-knit community. But did humans really invent music, or did we just discover that certain sounds sound nice with other sounds? Birds sing, whales sing, even tree frogs have a nice rich baritone sometimes. So can we really say man invented music? If we did, then what is the true definition of music? I guess we'll never know.
On the list of man's greatest inventions has to be tools. In fact, for a really long time, scientists were pretty sure that this is exactly what made us human. We were the only animals who, through the use of such a variety of tools, were able to expand and grow so quickly. Except we aren't the only ones who use tools. A lot of animals, mainly primates, use tools for all kinds of reasons. A study by Jane Goodall on African chimpanzees would change the definition of man forever.
In the research, it was discovered that these chimpanzees use tools to gather food, brush the...