10%

I’ve read a couple of articles recently questioning something we thought was known, the idea that we only use 10% of our brains, and I wonder how they know?  First of all, any sample size for an experiment that is short of 7 billion is going to give inconclusive results because some people might use more, some considerably less.

Are the teabaggers only using 5%, or were they that dumb to start with?  My feeling is it doesn’t matter too much because 10% of a lot is still a lot, but 10% of a little is damned near nothing at all, and that is half the population.  Sometimes, I wonder how society can function as well as it does.

I’m sure there must be a range.  We are so different from each other in so many different ways that it seems impossible we should be consistent in this.

For instance.  It has long been said that people need 8 hours of sleep every night.  I average about 6, and I usually manage to get through the day without hallucinations or sudden tantrums.  Some people might need 10.  It’s O.K.   We can all get along.

I saw another study recently that said that 80% of our DNA is just junk.  I believe that, too.  Nature, and the law of natural selection, doesn’t have to be efficient – just effective.  There is redundancy and overkill all over the place.

The vast majority of the universe is empty space.

Whether we use 10% of our brain, or 20% of a 50% less intelligent brain, is an interesting question for scientists, but it doesn’t change anything.  We are as smart as we are, we are at the stage of evolution we are at, and the only thing that is certain is that it won’t remain exactly the same.

Nothing  ever does.