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STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

ARE STUPID PEOPLE HAPPIER? - 21.07.2009

Happiness... nobody truly knows what it is. It may be found in gratitude, in success, in love, in friendship. We don't have a formal definition for it. And we will never have one, because happiness is not science. Happiness is a subjective experience and each individual has his own views, his own opinions regarding it. We simply know it when we feel it.

However, it is the number one thing that we so feverishly endeavour. The one elusive, ideal concept of what we think happiness should be that we relentlessly pursue. We are ceaselessly trying to accelerate our happiness, to enhance it, but in doing so we are edging out on real experiences, on those little things that bring us joy. Why? Because that joy that they bring us does not always comply with the standards of our ideal happiness. Because we are always so concentrated on figuring out what we want, what makes us happy, that we disregard the small, but beautiful things around us and this ultimately makes us unhappy.

The old saying goes: "Ignorance is bliss." But that does not necessarily mean that there is an actual negative correlation between happiness and intelligence. It does not mean that being more knowledgeable hampers you form seeing the bright side of life.

It is true that society has a proclivity for separating the intelligent ones from the rest. Educational systems tend to segregate intelligent children by putting them in special classes which can engender a deprivation of social interaction and ultimately augment their chances of developing psychological disorders such as depression. And while it is the more intelligent people that are always trying to figure out what happiness is, greater intelligence acts as a double-edged sword when it comes to happiness. On the one hand, smarter people are better equipped to provide for themselves; on the other hand, those same people may strive continually to achieve more and they are often peculiarly susceptible to being less satisfied with the upshots.

When it comes to the less intelligent ones it is not necessarily stupidity that is said to make them happy but lack of awareness because what you don't know can't hurt you. They are often less ambitious and thus more likely to be self-satisfied and find fulfillment in the most insignificant of achievements.

However, no scientific research has ever proven that less intelligent people are happier and no scientist has ever endorsed this hypothesis. We all have equal chances to find happiness and we all do it eventually. All we need to do is stop for a moment and look around ourselves and appreciate everything that we already have.

HAVE ALL THE GOOD IDEAS ALREADY BEEN DISCOVERED? - 23.11.2019

Over the last hundreds of years our ability to innovate, to grasp new ideas, to understand the world has been hitting a hyperspeed. But does that mean that we are soon going to reach the point where there is nothing left to discover?

Well, claiming that we have reached the end of all our good ideas displays a shameful lack of historic awareness because it has happened before that people thought that they had plateaued but they eventually came up with new ideas. In fact, people started using sharp rocks as bashing and cutting tools at the beginning of the lower Paleolithic period and it took them over 2000 years to figure out that they could attach handles to them. And it is exactly this apparent lack of intelligence that has been befuddling scientists ever since.

However, our situation is completely different as we have so much information, technology and freedom to express our ideas.

Truth be told, real technological innovation has stalled since the 1990's and it is now predominantly design and market oriented. Repackaging everything in more practical and more appealing designs has been providing such tremendous financial support that a plethora of company owners are no longer interested in coming up with novel ideas in terms of technology.

However, people innovate first and foremost because they want to express and materialize their ideas. Their willingness to take risks is one of the driving forces of innovation and there are so many ambitious, goal-oriented individuals out there that running out of good ideas is simply impossible. Moreover, due to the threat that climate change poses nowadays the future of innovation will consist of coming up with sustainable substitutes for already existing technologies and products.

Futhermore, when it comes to understanding the world around us the truth is that even though we might end up to figure out all the problems of science, which is very unlikely, there will always be human life, consciousness and the subjectivity of what is going on is someone's head because one thing that will always be elusive is everybody else's perception of reality. We arrive at reality by consensus and we interact with the universe through subjectivity, but the fact that everybody sees things differently is constantly hampering us from understanding everything.

Therefore, the true befuddling question is not whether or not we have run out of good ideas but whether or not we will ever be able to get over the wall of subjectivism. Or perhaps it will always be the wall that we bump into.

IS THE WORLD GOING TO END IN 2012? - 31.03.2009

We've all heard about the "Doomsday" prophecies from 2012. And we're most certainly all getting a good laugh about such drivel now in 2020, but back then people had to face years of perpetual doom and gloom because of the news spread by pseudoscientists and would-be prophets. The mayhem that was engendered by the irresponsible spreading of such news lead to people stocking up on groceries and toiletries, building bunkers and looking for ways to protect themselves.

However, now that it is clear that the world has survived the so called "apocalypse" the question that rises is how could so many people believe such nonsense and spread so much terror when that theory had never even been endorsed by science? What is it that made so many people embrace such beliefs and completely disregard scientists' opinions?

Well, on the one hand, these prophecies reflected society's cultural and environmental concerns at the time. As they were becoming increasingly eco-conscious and aware of their environmental impact the prospect of a looming apocalypse became increasingly horrifying and predictions of cataclysmic events started to arise.

On the other hand, various astrological alignments were considered harbingers of the imminent cataclysmic or transformative events. On December 21st, the day when the world was going to end, the sun was going to be in the center of the Milky Way, and moreover, a new sun spot cycle was beginning on that exact day, two phenomena which were bound to have conspicuous consequences, engendering severe climate change and imbalance in Earth's processes. Thus, people did not consider these pure coincidences and their conviction regarding the "Doomsday" prophecies augmented.

Therefore, even though everything turned out well in the end this experience has taught us a lot about human nature, about our gullibility and about media's power to deceive.

SHORT STUFF: FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING - 24.04.2019

Rapid heartbeats, sweating, trembling, dry mouth are just a few of the feelings that over 75% of people experience when faced with the challenge of speaking in front of a public.

Either an innate shyness which augments along with the passage of time or something that is developed along the way, the fear of public speaking, also known as glossophobia, has been debilitating some people's lives in such a way that they have come to structure their lives around avoiding it. The illusion of transparency and the degree to which the speaker identifies public speaking as a performance rather that an act of communication are two factors which engender the arousal of a fight-or-flight psychological response which ultimately leads to people cowering and completely avoiding public speaking.

However, it is not the preparation that it involves, nor the actual delivery of the speech that people fear, but rather the humiliation and failure that most people tend to associate it with. Therefore, the true fear that people experience prior to an impending performance is the fear of being judged, the fear of failing. These fears can actually have serious detrimental effects on people's quality of life and they become especially problematic when they start hampering individuals from attaining of pursuing goals they might otherwise have.

Thus, in order to prevent this fear from completely controlling our lives we have to make certain adjustments. As glossophobia is something that often develops at a very young age, parents play a pivotal role in alleviating this fear. And they have to walk a fine line between pushing their children to overcome their fears and cajoling them into stepping out of their comfort zones while not forcing them to do so.

Moreover, as individuals we have to take control of the situation and even though it might seem frightening at times we have to do it. And the best way to start doing it is on a smaller scale, like talking alone in a room or talking in front of a group of people we feel comfortable with. And by doing it in increasingly anxiety inducing settings we eventually manage to train our brain not to associate public speaking with fear. And once we manage to do that the only thing that is left is to keep practising and enhancing our public speaking skills.

On the other hand, the preparation before any performance is of utmost importance. And the best way to prepare is to know the material, but do not only memorize it. You have to be so well-acquainted with it that you can improvise at any time because when your crutch is the actual material then you are perfectly prepared to deliver any speech.

WILL DEEPFAKES RUIN THE WORLD? - 30.07.2019

Truth be told, whether we know it or not or whether we want to admit it or not we are constantly in jeopardy. The world, today's society, these things are constantly changing. And in order to protect ourselves, we need to change along with them because in such volatile and unpredictable times it is of paramount importance that we develop the ability to respond to the changes occurring in the surrounding environment and adapt proactively to novel paradigms.

However, how can we protect ourselves when we know nothing about the imminent threat? Or even worse, how can we protect ourselves when we don't even know we are in danger?

The answer is simple: we cannot.

Unfortunately, this often happens with deepfakes, which are digitally manipulated videos that yield fabricated images and sounds that appear to be real and have a high potential to deceive. This novel technology emerged in 2017 and, since then, a plethora of broadly accessible apps have been developed, reaching the point where anyone who had a computer and access to the internet could produce a deepfake. And with that being said, it is clear that this technology has become so ubiquitous, yet so many of us are oblivious to its existence.

Marco Rubio, an American politician, said that "deepfakes are the modern equivalent of a nuclear bomb." And either a hyperbolic statement or not it is true to some extent. Their power to deceive will eventually erode today's already polarized society and the trust that is necessary for a democracy to thrive will substantially diminish, taking the war of misinformation on a completely different level. Moreover, being constantly exposed to such realistic and indistinguishable from reality fake news will eventually make us lose our ability to agree on what is shared, objective reality.

On the other hand, being aware of the existence of these means of manipulation may actually make us more discriminating and more discerning of the news than we are today, which may or may not be a good thing. 

However, as advances in artificial intelligence are making the creation of convincing fake audio and video relatively easy, we have to train ourselves how to discern the real from the fake. And it is of utmost importance that we acknowledge the existence of deepfakes and the threat that they pose and ultimately start questioning everything we see or hear that seems surreal or unbelievable, without actually jumping to conclusions.

And given all that I would like to say that while I do believe that this kind of manipulation is indeed a threat to humanity, we can keep the situation under control by keeping up with the changes that are constantly occurring.

IS PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY A REAL THING? - 02.07.2019

As much as many people would like to believe that they have a photographic memory, the ability to recall a past scene with astonishing accuracy and remember intricate details of it has not yet been proven to exist. While many of us have a great visual memory, nobody can truly retrieve an image from their memory at will and examine it in astounding detail as if it were a photograph.

However, there are a few remarkable people with gifted memories who have claimed to possess a photographic memory. Nikola Tesla was one them and he claimed to have no trouble memorizing entire books. And along with him there was Van Gogh, who was thought to have had a photographic memory as well.

But there is one person with an incredible memory about whom we have so much more information and that is Jill Price. She has a highly superior autobiographical memory, which means that she can recall most of the days of her life as clearly as the rest of us remember recent past. She vividly remembers each day of the last three decades and what she was doing on each one of them. And although we may think that this is a blessing or some kind of superpower, to Jill it is quite nettlesome and stress inducing, as her memories are usually triggered involuntarily by anything she might see or hear. And to give you a better understanding of what Jill goes through every day I suggest you try to imagine not being able to overcome the excruciating pain engendered by the loss of a loved one and then imagine reliving those times over and over again.

Consequently, can we actually admit that such an incredible memory is truly a blessing? I personally don't think so. But one thing that I am sure about is that it is not photographic memory, as Jill Price can only recall personal memories.

However, there is something that is unimaginably close to photographic memory and that is eidetic memory, which is the ability to vividly recall an image you are exposed to, but only briefly, whereas photographic memory refers to the ability to recall an image from one's memory in great detail, at any time.

Thus, I think that the answer to the question whether or not photographic memory is a real thing has become blatantly clear. 

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE: ICELAND - 30.03.2020

Iceland has one of the highest per capita rates of coronavirus infections of any country in the world. But what do these numbers really mean? Do they denote a lack of effective precautionary measures taken by the Icelandic authorities?

As countries around the world struggle to contain the pandemic, Iceland's widespread testing and contact tracing approach has not only enabled them to swiftly and effectively isolate the infected, thus managing to alleviate the rapid spread of the virus, but it has also had some very profound implications for understanding the virus and the way it spreads among people. The Icelandic medical research company, deCode Genetics, has been offering to perform large scale testing, which, also includes people who show no symptoms of the disease. This effort is intended to gather insight into the actual prevalence of the virus in the community, as most countries are most exclusively testing symptomatic individuals at this time.

Moreover, isolating different strains of the virus has enabled them to determine the provenance of it, making possible the circumvention of an exponential growth in the number of infected people in the country, due to early measures of quarantining. The testing has provided evidence revealing that a significant portion of those who catch the disease do so with no or mild symptoms. However, asymptomatic individuals heavily contribute to the transmission of the disease.

While the widespread testing approach has proved crucial and highly effective, the Icelandic authorities have taken further precautionary measures. Irrespective of the already advanced healthcare system, measures have been put in place in order to ensure that there is an increase in capacity. Newly built nursing homes and hospitals have been set aside and a reserve of a plethora of nurses and doctors has been made available. Therefore, the Icelandic population is very trusting of the government and has faith in what has been carried out so far.

To sum it all up, Iceland's situation has proven that such high numbers do not necessarily denote an inadequate handling of the situation, but rather the reality that many are scared to face, which is that the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus is much higher that many of us think.   

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE: THE BORDER - 26.03.2020

As Prince Charles, along with many other political figures and officials, fall ill with the novel coronavirus people become apprehensive of the gravity of the situation and increasingly aware of how highly contagious this virus truly is.

While some people are obdurately refusing to follow the social distancing guidelines implemented by governments and callously disregarding the possible, detrimental consequences of their actions, many vulnerable populations struggle to comply with the new regulations. Living in an encampment in Mexico, in crowded, often unhygienic conditions, thousands of migrants and asylum-seekers are far from able to follow the public health advice being given.

Beyond the potentially tragic consequences for refugees, failing to counter the spread of the virus among large refugee communities could undercut any success in containing the outbreak and enable it to spread further.

Therefore, in the light of the lack of healthcare professionals and exiguous sanitary resources, Sam Bishop, a project coordinator with the humanitarian organization Global Response Management, along with local authorities have taken precautionary measures to prevent an outbreak from spreading in the camps.

As refugees are highly susceptible to hearing and embracing false rumors concerning the novel coronavirus which could engender a state of panic among them, the authorities have mainly focused on the education aspects of prevention, having certified physicians inform the public about the pandemic and the possible consequences of an outbreak in that area.

Moreover, Sam Bishop has also considered the medical aspects of prevention, desperately seeking to enhance the sanitary conditions of the camp, while also giving out free vitamins to the refugees. He has also been collaborating with local health departments which have been endorsing his plan to build a 20-bed field hospital at the camp. 

Such preventive measures are mandatory in a society where false rumors are ubiquitous and people are highly susceptible to spreading the virus due to the high density of the population and the unstable healthcare system.

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE: AN UNLIKELY SUCCESS STORY - 25.03.2020

Is an economic stability and prosperity required to alleviate the spread of novel coronavirus? Is swiftness more crucial than stringency? Does the politicization of the issue implicitly endorse the panic that has already been created and hamper successful upshots from arriving?

As countries around the world struggle to contain the pandemic, Georgia has become an unlikely success story. Despite the seemingly underdeveloped economy of the country, Georgia is already way ahead most European countries in terms of combating the virus. As an initial reaction to the rapidly spreading coronavirus Georgia's leaders started undertaking immediate countermeasures to minimize the virus' expansion. Thus, even before Georgia had its first confirmed cases, border checks, which included temperature tests and reviews of travel history, were already well in progress. By the time Georgia had only three confirmed cases, schools had already been closed nationwide and targeted lockdown had been put in place. Such authoritarian measures enabled Georgian authorities to detect the first person infected with the virus, a Georgian man returning from Iran.

The government's comforting attitude toward the novel coronavirus was one epitomized by seriousness and stringency, which engendered a certain public confidence in the government. Additionally, the Georgian government made the pragmatic decision of stepping back and letting healthcare professionals take control of the situation. Putting brilliant professionals at the very front line has helped make sure that public messages were communicated by the right people at the right time. The leadership of the nation's best healthcare minds has helped ensure that the response has been effective, based on scientific rigor and commensurate with the country's resources.

Moreover, the advanced healthcare system and the abundant supply of testing kits enabled a mass testing approach, which aimed to minimize the spread of the virus within the borders of Georgia.

For countries like Georgia, with such scarce resources and fragile healthcare systems, the only viable option in containing a virus is prevention. All the prudently timed countermeasures that Georgian authorities have implemented have proved extremely effective, emphasizing, once again, the crucial need for preventive measures. 

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE: ISLANDS - 24.03.2020

The cholera outbreak in Haiti, 2010... a time of terror and confusion... a time when extreme measures had to be taken in order to protect the island's population. In the light of the inchoate healthcare system of the island and the scarce resources, due to the earthquake that Haiti had experienced nine months prior, the epidemic ravaged the country engendering thousands of deaths.

Therefore, do islands truly have advantages during a pandemic?

In response to the upsurge in the number of infected people around the world some remote islands have already taken stringent measures, such as closing borders or employing island fortress tactics, to combat the spread of the virus.

Nevertheless, are these measures necessary or are they mere by-products of leaders' exaggerated concerns?

Considering the already existent reprehensible consequences of the pandemic in developed countries around the world such measures implemented by the leaders of underdeveloped islands are well-justified. The high density of the population can hasten the spreading of the virus, thus a possible coronavirus outbreak is such areas could be devastating. Due to meager health provisions islands are heavily dependent on other countries, such as U.S. or China, to ensure the necessary supplies.

However, as flights are progressively being grounded and the pressure on developed countries' resources is rising, such actions are becoming increasingly onerous.

Moreover, in the case of an outbreak the economic prospects for islands, whose economies rely mostly on tourism, are dire.

Consequently, such measures are absolutely necessary in order to protect these islands' inhabitants and ensure future economic stability.

DON'T TOUCH YOUR FACE: LOCKDOWN - 23.03.2020

Further stringent measures are being implemented in countries all over the world as they desperately seek to slow down and alleviate the spread of novel coronavirus. Internal and international travels have been banned, curfews have been applied, and schools and other institutions have been closed.

Millions of people in countries from all over the world, who are confined to their homes, are drearily familiar to the lackluster daily routines of life in isolation. Though highly inconvenient for many, social distancing has become a moral duty as it plays a crucial role in fighting the virus.

Nevertheless, how can we possibly prepare for something which many of us have never experienced before?

It is of utmost importance that we do not get caught out of place. While social distancing itself is inconvenient and even depressing for some individuals, getting stranded for weeks far from our houses, in places we are not familiar with could be devastating. Leaving your country in such volatile and unpredictable times is undoubtedly injudicious. 

This hypothesis is blatantly emphasized by one of the hundreds of Americans now stranded in Peru, due to the government closing the country's borders. He reveals insights from the precarious living conditions of his current lifestyle, such as his inability to purchase medication for his rather vulnerable father.

Find out more about their mechanisms of coping with the stress and listen to today's podcast!