Innocent Thoughts

By Ophir Mottes

Innocent Thoughts tackles concepts that are often taken for granted, but when inspected carefully exhibit complex intricacies within. The explored concepts cover a wide array of subjects from economics and sociology to physics and biology. The book presents the hidden intricacies by asking the questions we usually do not ask and then discussing ideas for possible answers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ophir Mottes
• Release date: Apr 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370259724

Ophir Mottes

I am an avid reader and find interest in a wide range of subjects. My main fascination is with Physics, Robotics, Biology, and Human Behavior. Over the years, I have formally studied Physics and Mechanical Practical Engineering. For me, understanding is a goal, but also a bottomless pit, and I am always amazed how something I thought to know perfectly can reveal new insights. The resulting endless journey is sometimes hard and frustrating, but when a new understanding suddenly solidifies it is just amazing.

Book preview

Innocent Thoughts

By Ophir Mottes

Copyright © 2016 by Ophir Mottes

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Contents

1) Introduction

2) The Scheme

3) Money

4) A Beauty Pageant Wish

5) Free Will

6) Prophecy

7) Reality

8) Justice

9) Me

10) Consciousness

11) Thoughts

12) Sleep

13) Feelings

14) The Brain

15) Family, Tribe, Country, Species

16) Life

17) Origin of Life

18) Afterword

Links

Introduction

Many words, concepts, and sentences seem obvious to us; it feels like we know what they mean, and we do not really stop to see if we do. Often once an actual effort is done and we try to put our knowing into words, we find things are not that simple.

Many times once an accurate definition is sought, the intricacies of concepts reveal themselves.

Many times when trying to explain an understood sentence, we find out it has some hidden folds, and we may have to define some of its parts better, or maybe we uncover another avenue of thought it provokes.

This short book discusses such instances and tries to distill and present some of the current views concerning our universe.

The Scheme

It was during break at high school that a classmate tried to sell us a letter with five names on it.

The sales pitch went something like this: You buy this letter from me for ten dollars. The letter has a list of five names on it, and once you have it you send it to the issuing company with two ten-dollar checks. You make one check out to the company and one in the name of the first person on the list. The company passes the second check to its recipient and sends you four letters with a list of five names on them.

In the four letters you receive the list is revised. Each name from the original list moves one place up and your name appears fifth, so the name that was first on the list does not appear anymore, the name of the person you bought the letter/list from is at fourth place, and your name is at fifth place.

After receiving the four letters you sell them for ten dollars each and wait. Assuming the continuance of the process, your name will ascend along the list, and when you reach the first place, the next person to buy a letter/list will send you a ten-dollar check (through the company).

Now you sell the letters to 4 people with your name fifth on the list. They in turn sell letters to 4 people each, so 16 people have a letter with you fourth on the list. These 16 people sell letters to 4 people each, amounting to 64 letters with you third on the list, then 4 x 64 = 256 letters with you second on the list. Finally 1,024 letters exist with you as first on the list.

Looking at what happens money-wise: Initially you spend $30 and then receive $40 from selling the letters, so after the first stage you earn $10. At the second stage you receive $10 from 1,024 people who buy a letter with your name first on the list, so you earn $10,240. In the end, summing-up the two stages, you earn a total of $10,250.

This $10,250 is the maximum you can earn, but that happens only if all the people along the way manage to sell their four letters. Still, if you think you can sell three letters you will break even, and you have nothing to lose.

Diagram 1: The scheme

My classmates felt like the offer was a scam and did not want anything to do with it, but what is the flaw? After all it is in the interest of all, including the company, to keep the ball rolling. If it does everybody will earn money.

I did buy a letter, and I did receive my four letters as promised and managed to sell two of them. I did not receive any other ten-dollar checks originating from the two branches I started, so my venture finished at a ten-dollar loss.

In trying to sell the letters, I kept failing on the point that people believed it to be a scam even though no one explained why. Without looking for a logical problem in the process itself, people saw they would make money from nothing, and they knew this does not happen. This personal knowledge inevitably led to the conclusion that the offer must have been a scam.

The model described is often known as a pyramid scheme. It has different variations, is done in different ways, and in some instances has even resulted in violent outbreaks (caused by people who lost money to them). They are also illegal in most countries.

In the version described above no one is cheating. The model is transparent to the participants, and there are no hidden tricks. Everything is on the level.

So, where does the model fail?

To see the point of failure it is best to assume the model runs perfectly. Starting with an initiator, he sells 4 lists with four empty spaces and his name in the fifth place. The 4 people who bought the letters sell 4 letters each to a total of 16 people. They sell 4 letters each to 64 people, who sell 4 letters each to 256 people, who sell letters to 1,024 people. After 4 + 16 + 64 + 256 + 1,024 = 1,364 people have bought lists, the initiator earns $10,280. He makes $30 more than the $10,250 calculated earlier because he does not have to pay for the list, or pay the first person on the list, or pay the company.

What happens if we stop here—if the last 1,024 people do not sell their letters?

Well, one person makes a lot of money: $10,280.

Some people (4 + 16 + 64 + 256 = 340) earn a small amount of money: $20. These people pay $10 for the list and $10 to the company, and they receive $40 from selling their lists.

And many people (1,024) lose a small amount of money: $30. These people pay $10 for the list, $10 to the company, and $10 to the first person on the list (the initiator), and they receive nothing.

If we continue, let us suppose that until the 1,024 people make their money and stop, then the pattern continues. A small amount of people (1,365) make a lot of money: $10,250 (to be precise, 340 of them actually make $10,260, and one makes $10,280). Many people (348,160) make a small amount of money: $10. And a lot of people (1,048,576) lose a small amount of money: $30.

Following are the numbers to this example.

Participants: 1 + 4 + 16 + 64 + 256 + 1,024 + 4,096 + 16,384 + 65,536 + 262,144 + 1,048,576 = 1,398,101 people

Receive a lot of money: 1 + 4 + 16 + 64 + 256 + 1,024 = 1,365 people

Receive $10: 4,096 + 16,384 + 65,536 + 262,144 = 348,160 people

Lose $30: 1,048,576 people

In summary, if the model is stopped at any point, there is a redistribution of money. Basically, many people sacrifice a small amount of money to enrich a small number of people.

What happens if we continue running the model?

We would very quickly need the whole world’s population to participate. If we continue, people who already participated have to participate again (they will be happy to; they made money last time), but because so many letters need to be sold, every person will have to buy a growing number of letters each time he or she participates.

We can see how this works by restricting the world’s population. Let us suppose the world population is 1,365 people, which is the number of participants in the first example. Taking this restriction into consideration means that when the 1,024 people buy letters and send $10 each to the initiator, we get to a point where all of the world’s population has participated in the model.

To continue, and to do so in a simple way, we can have the initiator buy all the letters the 1,024 people need to sell, meaning he needs to buy 4 letters from each one of them, which equals to 4 x 1024 = 4,096 letters. The initiator then has to sell 4 letters