Black holes

The 2 Most Important Skills For the Rest Of Your Life | Yuval Noah Harari on Impact Theory

I think this is maybe the most important thing
to know about living right now in the
21st century that we are now hackable
animals that we have the technology to
decipher what do you think what you want
to predict human choices to manipulate
human desires in ways which were never
possible before everybody welcome to
impact theory our goal with this show
and company is to introduce you to the
people and ideas that will help you
actually execute on your dreams all
right today’s guest is one of the most
profound thinkers of our time a two-time
winner of the Polanski prize for
creativity and originality his books
have sold over 12 million copies and
been translated into more than 45
languages sapiens his seminal book on
the history of mankind spent six months
on the Sunday Times bestseller list and
also made him in number one New York
Times bestselling author his work has
been recommended by countless luminaries
including Bill Gates Richard Branson
Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama he’s
won a litany of awards including the
Society for military histories monk Otto
Award for outstanding articles on
military history and the 2017 handel’s
Blatz German economic Book Award for the
most thoughtful and influential economic
book of the year additionally he’s one
of the most sought-after and influential
speakers in the world he’s given
multiple TED talks on hot-button issues
relating to the human race and in 2018
he was invited to give the main stage
keynote speech on the future of humanity
at the World Economic Forum annual
meeting in Davos he is a PhD from Oxford
is a tenured history professor at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in
addition to his many books he’s also
written for such prestigious global
outlets as the Financial Times the New
York Times The Wall Street Journal and
The Guardian so please help me in
welcoming the man who does a yearly 60
day silent Vipassana meditation retreat
the bestselling author of 21 lessons for
the 21st century

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

New York Times Bestseller
A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg
https://amzn.to/32zRRJX

Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind

A hardcover edition of the first volume of the graphic adaptation of Yuval Noah Harari’s smash #1 New York Times and international bestseller recommended by President Barack Obama and Bill Gates, with gorgeous full-color illustrations and concise, easy to comprehend text for readers of all ages.
https://amzn.to/3pjV9dW

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today’s most pressing issues.
https://amzn.to/38yBr8c

you’ve all here we’re happy to have you on the show thank you
good to be here good
very excited so I’ve been obsessively
reading your books since sapiens came
out and just really really blown away
and behind the scenes there’s a guy here
named chase somewhere who you will have
to meet today who has just been an
absolute champion for your books
internally because of the way that you
really frame the historical and where
we’re going in a way that becomes very
accessible for today and who we are and
that I think is the cool nexus of 21
lessons is that you’re really attacking
how does this all make sense how is the
past inform where we are and how does
where we are today inform where we’re
actually going to go and as a company
that’s making fiction content and
dealing in sci-fi and things like that
these ideas are really really important
to us for creating guides on how to be
essentially and the idea that I wanted
to start with is your notion of some of
the things that are happening
technologically become a little bit
dangerous because you can hack a human
and if you get explain what you mean by
hacking a human and then how do we end
up hacking ourselves in a positive way
well I think this is maybe the most
important thing to know about living
right now in the 21st century that we
are now hackable animals we have the
technology to decipher how humans or
what do you think what you want to
predict human choices to manipulate
human desires in ways which were never
possible before basically to hack a
human being you need two things you need
a lot of data especially biometric data
not just about where you go and what you
buy but what is happening inside your
body and inside your brain and secondly
you need a lot of computing power to
make sense of all that data now
previously in history this was never
possible
nobody had enough data and enough
computing power to hack human beings
even if the KGB of the Gestapo followed
you around 24 hours a day
eavesdropping on every conversation you
had watching everybody you meet still
they did not have the biological
knowledge to really understand what’s
happening inside you and they certainly
didn’t have the computing power
necessary to make sense even of the data
they were able to collect so the KGB
could not really understand you could
not really predict all your choices or
manipulate all your desires and so forth
and but now it’s changing what the KGB
couldn’t do corporations and governments
today are beginning to be able to do and
this is because of the merger of the
revolution in biotech we are getting
better in understanding what’s happening
inside us in the body in the brain and
at the same time the revolution in
Infotech which gives us the computing
power necessary when you put the two
together when Infotech merges with
biotech what you get is the ability to
create algorithms that understand me
better than I understand myself and then
these algorithms cannot just predict my
choices but also manipulate my desires
and basically sell me anything whether
it’s a product or a politician and that
so that’s what you’re calling hacking
that you’re hitting me with the right
emotional message at exactly the right
time based on my biometric data mm-hmm
yeah this is one of the things you can
do then you can predict you can
manipulate you can eventually also
re-engineer or replace if you really
hack a system you really understand how
it functions then usually you can also
reengineering or you can completely
replace it and again one of the dangers
that we are facing to during the 21st
century is that computers and AI would
be able to replace humans in more and
more tasks and maybe push millions of
humans out of the job market as a result
all right so I I fully understand the
dangers and we will talk about some of
what we were talking about off-camera
which is we’ve got this whole story
called nyan phew
we’re exploring that notion of what
happens to what you’ve called the
useless class when they’re pushed out of
the job market and what does that do
economically but going just staying with
the the notion of the hack ability for a
second so it’s funny as you were
describing it and I know you bring the
sense of like there’s some like real
significant problems we need to take a
very serious look at and I get almost
giddy with excitement because I have
potentially delusional levels of
optimism I’m very open to that no I
agree I mean the thing about this
ability to hack humans is that it has
also potentially tremendous positive
consequences and this is why it’s so
tempting if it was only bad then it was
B which would have been like an easy
deal to say okay we don’t want that and
let’s stop researching or going in the
direction but it is extremely tempting
because it can provide us for example
with the best health care in history
something which goes far beyond anything
we’ve seen so far
this can mean that maybe in 30 years the
poorest person on the planet can get a
better health care from her or his
smartphone then the richest person today
gets from the best hospitals and the
best doctors the kind of things you can
just know about what’s happening in your
body is nothing like we’ve seen so far
know that that’s really extraordinary
and if you had to take the positive look
and say okay we have this ability let’s
just say it’s already there we’ve got
all this biometric data it’s kicking off
how would you encourage people to
leverage that to empower themselves and
I’ll use an example that I found
profoundly interesting from your book so
you said that growing up that it was
unclear to you that you were gay but
that now Stanford has developed an
algorithm that essentially can look at
three or four photos of somebody’s face
and predict with 91% accuracy whether or
not they’re gay which seems impossible
but if that’s true the level of data
that we could give ourselves about are
like deepest most hardwired desires
there would be a level of clarity there
that seems useful how would you
encourage people to use that well it’s a
very good example I mean the Stanford
algorithm actually there is a lot of
problems with that research and let’s
put it aside but first key message from
from that is how little people actually
know about themselves and one of the
most important things in my life and
also in I think in my scientific career
was the realization of how little I know
about myself and humans in general there
was so many important ideas and
important facts we don’t realize about
herself I was 21 when I finally realized
that I was game which is you know when
you think what it it’s it’s absolutely
amazing I mean it should have been
obvious at age you know 16 15 and an
algorithm would have realized it very
quickly and you can build algorithms
like that today or in a few years you
just need to follow your eye movements
like you you go on the beach or you you
look at the computer screen and you see
an attractive guy an attractive girl and
just follow the focus of the eyes world
with the eyes go and whom do they focus
on should be very easy and such an
algorithm could have told when I was 15
that I was gay and the implications are
really mind-boggling when an algorithm
knows such an important thing about you
before you know it about yourself
now it can go in all kinds of directions
it really depends on where you live and
what you do with it
in some countries you can be in trouble
now with the police in the government
you might be sent to some reaction
facility in some countries like with you
know surveillance capitalism so maybe I
don’t know about myself that I’m game
but coca-cola knows I’m gay because they
have these algorithms and they want to
know that because they need to know
which commercials to show me let’s say
coca-cola knows that I’m gay and I even
know about myself that they know it and
Pepsi doesn’t coca-cola will show me a
commercial
with a shirtless guy drinking coca-cola
but Pepsi will make the mistake of
showing the girl in the bikini and next
day without my realizing why when I go
to the supermarket when I go to the to
the restaurant I will order coca-cola
not Pepsi I don’t know why but they know
so they might not even share this kind
of information with me now if the
algorithm does share the information
with me again it’s it a lot depends on
context one scenario is that you’re 15
years old
you go to a birthday party of somebody
from your class and somebody just heard
that there is this cool new algorithm
which tells zeros sexual orientation and
everybody agrees it will be a lot of fun
to just have this game that everybody
takes turn with the algorithm and and
everybody else looking and seeing the
results would you like to discover about
yourself in such a scenario this this
can be quite quite a shocking experience
okay but even if it’s done in like
complete privacy you know it’s it’s a
very deep philosophical question what
does it mean to discover something like
that about yourself from an algorithm
what car what does it mean about human
life about human identity we have very
little experience with these kinds of
things you know from very ancient times
all the philosophers and saints and
sages tell people to get to know
yourself better it’s one of the maybe
the most important thing in life is to
get to know yourself better but for all
of history this was a process of self
exploration which you did through things
like meditation and maybe sports and
maybe out and contemplation and all
these things what does it mean when the
process of self self exploration is
being outsourced to a big data algorithm
and the philosophical implications are
our quite mind-boggling it’s interesting
so let’s talk about that so the
implications your outsourcing the
self-discovery process to me that
sounds so profoundly useful because all
day the people that write in to me
they’re asking basically one essential
question how do I find the thing that I
love because I tell people you need to
develop a passion in your life I don’t
think you find it I think you develop it
but they need to start from an area of
real interest it needs to be actually
something that at a hardwiring level
they’re just they get that response so
then their next question is like how
right how do I get into that how do I
discover the thing that triggers me like
that and if I discover then how do I
develop it into a passion if you had an
algorithm something that were able to
use the more manipulative techniques
that you were talking about that
coca-cola’s doing or whatever but give
it to you in a way that can move you in
a desired direction so I’ll give you a
specific example that you give in the
book so talking about how let’s say
there was an algorithm that knew you
just broken up with somebody new that
you were in the grips of heartache
because they’re they’re reading your
BIOS thing we all do ha in fact give it
to us that that example that you put so
the biometrics they’re reading you the
it’s the song it knows what songs to
pick yeah I mean something is as simple
as choosing music so you you were just
dumped by your boyfriend or girlfriend
and the the algorithm that controls the
music that you listen to chooses the
songs that are the best fit for your
current mental state and of course this
brings up the question of what is the
matrix what do you actually want from
the music do you want the music to
uplift you or do you more want the music
to kind of connect you to the deepest
level of sadness and depression and
ultimately we can say that the algorithm
can follow different kinds of
instructions if you know what kind of
emotional state you want to be in you
can just tell the algorithm what what
you want and it will do it if you are
not sure you can tell the algorithm
follow the recommendation of the best
psychologist today so let’s say you have
the five stages of grief
so okay walk me with music
through this five stages of grief and
the algorithm can do that better than
any human DJ and what we really need to
understand in in this regard is that
what music and most of art plays on in
the end is the human biochemical system
at least according to the dominant view
of art in the modern Western world we
had different views in different
cultures but in the modern Western world
the idea of art is that art is above all
about inspiring human emotions it
doesn’t necessarily have to be joy great
art can inspire also sadness can can
inspire a anger can inspire fear it can
be a whole palette of emotional states
but out is about inspiring human
emotions so the instrument artists play
on and whether it’s musicians or poets
or movie makers they’re actually playing
on the homosapiens biochemical system
and we might reach a point quite soon
when an algorithm knows this instrument
better than any human artist a movie or
a poem or a song that will not move you
that will not inspire you might inspire
me and something that will inspire me in
one situation might not inspire me in
another situation and as time goes on
and the algorithm gathers more and more
data about me it will become more and
more accurate in reading my biochemical
system and knowing how to play on it as
if it was a piano like okay you want joy
I press this button and out comes the
perfect song the only song in the world
that can actually make me joyful right
now that’s so interesting to me alright
so right now real world you can snap
your fingers and you can have one
algorithm that’s tied to one biochemical
process in your life for real what would
you want to monitor and get that
feedback on now that’s easy I mean a
healthcare
if there is like something seriously
wrong in my body that I don’t know about
like I don’t know cancer or something I
would like the algorithm to find that
out I don’t want to wait until I mean
the usual process is that it has to go
through your own mind you can’t
outsource it I mean today when you need
to diagnose cancer there are exceptions
but in most cases there is a crucial
moment when you feel something is wrong
in my body and you go to this doctor and
that doctor and you do this test and
that test until they finally realize
okay we just discovered you have cancer
in your liver or whatever but because it
relies on your own feelings in this case
feelings of pain very often it’s quite
late in the process by the time you
start feeling pain usually the cancer
has spread and maybe it’s not too late
but it’s going to be expensive and
painful and problematic to treat it but
if we can you know outsource this don’t
go through the mind through through my
feelings I want an algorithm that with
biometric sensors is monitoring my
health 24 hours a day without my being
aware of it it can potentially discover
this liver cancer when it is just a tiny
just a few cells are beginning to to to
split and to spread and it’s so easy and
cheap and painless to take care of it
now instead of two years later when it’s
already spread and it’s it’s a big
problem so this is something that I
think almost everybody would sign on to
and this is the big temptation because
it comes with the whole other B the long
tail of dangers I mean this algorithm
that the the healthcare system knows
almost everything about you so one of
the biggest battles in the 21st century
is likely to be between privacy and
health and I guess that health is going
to win
most people will be willing to give up a
very significant amount of privacy in
exchange for far better health care now
we do need to try and enjoy both worlds
to create a system that give us a very
good health care but without
compromising our privacy
keeping there yes you can use the data
to tell me that there is a problem and
then we should do this order to solve it
but I don’t want this data to be used
for other purposes without my knowing it
whether we can reach such a balance and
like you know have-your-cake-
and-eat-it-too
that that’s a big political question
yeah yeah that’s that is very crazy and
very exciting for somebody like me who
definitely airs on the side of wanting
the health care
you’ve talked really powerfully about
story about how stories like money which
I don’t think most people think of as a
story as being you know these tremendous
things that control all of our lives
that point us all in the same direction
that gives us sort of a common code by
which to live
how can people take control of the story
that they tell themselves about
themselves which I find to be one of the
most important stories that you engage
in yes how our identity is really just a
story which we constantly construct and
and embellish I mean you can say that
the entire human mind is a machine that
constantly produces stories and
especially one very important story
which is my story and different people
have different specialize in different
genres some people build their stories a
tragedy some people build their stories
a comedy or a drama but in the end the
self is a story and not a real thing and
on the one hand with all the new
technologies you get better and in
better abilities to construct yourself
but already today a lot of the work
which previously was done in the brain
in the mind of constructing my identity
my story
has been outsourced to things like
Facebook that you build your Facebook
account and this is actually outsourcing
it from the brain and you are busy maybe
four hours every day just building a
story and becoming extremely attached to
it and and publicizing it to everybody
and you tend to make this fundamental
mistake you think it’s the wreck this is
really me and so that a mistake I’m
actually really curious first of all if
you take something like the profile that
people create about themselves in in
Facebook or Instagram it should be
obvious
it doesn’t really reflect your actual
existence your actual reality both in
reality now to reality like the
percentage of time you smile in your
Instagram account is much bigger than
the percentage of time you smile in real
life and you know you go on some
vacation and you post the the images
from the vacation so usually you’re
smiling in your in your swimming suit on
the beach with your girlfriend and
boyfriend holding and this cocktail and
everything looks perfect and everybody’s
so envious but actually you just had a
nasty fight with your boyfriend five
minutes ago and then this is the image
that everybody else is seeing and
thinking oh they must have such
wonderful time and afterwards like a
year later of two years later you look
back and this is what you see and you
forget what was the actual experience
like what what is the role of truth in a
story that we tell ourselves about
ourselves very little do you think there
should be more there should there should
definitely be more and wanting an
outcome if we were like I’m really gonna
make sure that the story I tell myself
is objectively true it’s going to be
very very painful and difficult I think
it is worth the effort but it’s just
very difficult we constantly we
constantly edit the this story just like
the news on TV are edited and just like
you know it’s a bit
making a movie like you watch the movie
in the cinema and everything is so
seamless like this is the story it flows
and then when you actually see how a
movie is produced this is insane like
you have this tiny bit of a scene you
repeat it 50 times and sometimes you
know you shoot this scene this scene
scene 2 comes after a scene 1 but
actually it was filmed long before that
so sometimes you you you feel the
breakup of the lovers before you film
the the first meeting for all kinds of
of scheduled reasons and location so the
the end result is completely seamless
and perfect but it is actually made up
from all these tiny
in tiny disconnected bits that have been
you know this is from here and this is
from there and we somehow glue it
together and it looks good and it’s the
same with the story of our life it’s all
kinds of bits and pieces and only when
you tell it to yourself or to somebody
else it kind of makes sense the cost of
trying to stick with the reality as it
is is very very high it’s very difficult
it demands a lot of effort and it is
often very painful because you have to
acknowledge many things about yourself
that you don’t want to acknowledge them
people have this fantasy of going to
some retreat and just taking out a week
or two off from life to really observe
inside to really explore Who am I what
is my authentic self and they have this
fantastic notion that I will be able to
finally connect to my inner child and I
will discover my true vocation in life
and I will discover all these wonderful
things about me and when you actually do
it
the first thing you usually encounter is
all the things you don’t want to know
about yourself there is a reason
that that that you don’t want to know
them I think it’s worth the effort but
it’s a very very hard task all right on
that there’s so many studies that talk
about the more delusional somebody is
self delusional the more likely they are
to be happy you’ve said one of the big
questions is a historian you’re trying
to answer is as we’ve moved forward as a
you know a species of society have we
actually gotten happier so there is some
importance it sounds like that you place
on happiness so why then would you want
people to do that hard work of facing
the reality is recognizing the things
about themselves that they don’t
necessarily want to recognize is that
because you think it leads to more
happiness I think that ultimately it is
worth the price I mean delusions come at
a very high price also and not just to
yourself but to people around you to the
world as a whole I mean ultimately this
leads to things like wars and like
genocide and like an emperor and you
know I come from Israel I come from the
Middle East so I am surrounded by
millions of people who are killing each
other because of all kinds of fictional
stories in delusions that they believe
in so sometimes it’s an important
defensive mechanism it’s very difficult
to live just with the raw truth all the
time but the price of delusion and the
price of not being able to tell the
difference between fiction and reality
it ends up and eventually it adds up to
things like genocide and war that sounds
like a pretty extraordinary price to pay
yeah I will agree with you there in 21
lessons is what do we do when we’re
faced with being put out of work that we
are one of the useless class and we have
to do this reinvention at a career level
you’re living longer your career life is
50 60 70 80 years whatever that looks
like in a time where every seven to ten
years like it’s just it’s a completely
new world what do you think the human
capacity for that level of reinvention
is well that’s a very important
question-it has little to do with
immortality because even without
immortality we are heading in the
direction even if people if the lifespan
remains as it is 80 years every 10 years
you have another big shock
I mean people one of the things many
people don’t realize about the AI
revolution and the automation revolution
they imagine it is some kind of one-time
event we have the big AI revolution in
2025
you have all these truck drivers and
taxi drivers and doctors and whatever
losing their jobs you have a few
difficult years of adjustment and then
eventually you have the new brave new
world of AI with a new equilibrium and
this is an extremely unlikely scenario
because we are nowhere near the maximum
potential of AI the speed in which it
develops is only likely to accelerate so
what we are really going to face is a
cascade of ever bigger revolutions in
the job market and in many other areas
of life relationships politics and so
forth so you have a big disruption in
2025 you have an even bigger disruption
in 2035 an even bigger one in 2045 and
and so forth and if you look say at a
job market so ok you were a truck driver
and they no longer need you but there is
new demand for yoga teachers so you
somehow reinvent yourself at age 40 I’m
no longer truck driver nominate your
teacher it’s very difficult you somehow
do it 10 years later no need of yoga
teachers thank you very much we now have
these amazing applications connected
with biometric sensors to your body they
know exactly what you’re doing with
every tiny muscle as you do this posture
of that posture
no human yoga teacher can compete with
that you’re out of job you have to
reinvent yourself again as a designer of
virtual world games and you do it
somehow but 10 years later you have to
do it again because this too has now
been automated and
even if you get support from the
government and there is all these
education for the for adult system the
really big question is again it’s
psychological do do we as human beings
have the mental stability and the
emotional intelligence necessary to
reinvent ourselves repeatedly and you
know when you’re 20 what you’re doing is
basically to reinvent yourself or to
invent yourself for the first time and
it is very difficult when you’re 30 it’s
even more difficult but you sometimes
but you somehow do it but when you get
to be 40 50 60 it becomes more and more
difficult you have more to let go of I
have invested so much in building this
career this personality these skills to
give it all up and start again from from
a new it’s so difficult so I don’t know
what whether we can do it yeah that is
the question that I think will
ultimately be forced to answer and that
brings me to education so what do you
think that if we’re talking to somebody
who’s 18 right now they’re trying to
decide do I go to college yes or no
should they go to college and if they go
to college what should they be studying
that’s a very difficult question the
first thing they should realize is that
nobody really knows nobody really knows
how the job market would look like in
2040 so they should be suspicious of all
these kinds of advices by people who
pretend that they know what the job
market would need in 20 years the best
investment I would say is in emotional
intelligence and in mental balance and
these kinds of skills of how to keep
changing throughout your life how to
keep learning throughout your life now
how do you learn that that’s very very
difficult we don’t have a college degree
in mental flexibility but these are the
most important
so whatever you choose you can go to law
school you can go to ballet school but
you should keep in mind that much of
what I’m learning might be irrelevant in
in 20 or 30 years so whatever else I’m
doing
I should also invest in developing my
emotional intelligence my mental balance
my ability to keep changing and learning
and reinventing throughout my life so
maybe to give an image or a metaphor if
in the past education was like building
a stone house with very deep foundations
now I would say that education is more
like a constructing a tent
that you can fold up and move to another
location very quickly and easily that’s
a great analogy so given that it’s so
hard to predict the future you’ve talked
a lot about the power of science fiction
and science fiction writers walk us
through that why what is the role that a
science fiction writer can play or
storytellers filmmaker whatever the case
may be our lives in the 21st century
more than anything else are going to be
new technologies especially in AI and
biotechnology and most people their
understanding of these technologies and
their potential for good or for bad it
really comes from science fiction the
political system so far has done an
awful job in understanding and preparing
us for these kinds of developments there
is almost no talk in the political arena
about AI and biotechnology the
scientific community is of course very
deeply engaged with it but most people
don’t read articles in science or nature
and even if they tried it would be very
difficult for them to understand the
professionals are gone and all that the
statistics and so forth so that most
people actually get their education
about what’s coming from science fiction
and this mean
at least I think so that science fiction
is now the most important artistic genre
and it should also be the most
responsible and one of the problems we
sense fiction is it’s so far it is done
as social jobs some novels and TV series
and films are really amazing in the way
they explore what’s what could what
could happen are ranging like some of my
favorites are my all-time favorite is
brave new world by Aldous Huxley which
was written back in the early 1930s and
I think is the most prophetic and
profound I totally understand alright so
before I asked my last question tell
these guys where they can find you
online I have a website why in Harari
dot-com and they can find me on Facebook
and Instagram and Twitter and all the
usual places
awesome my last question is what is the
impact that you want to have on the
world I want to bring more clarity to
the public conversation on what’s
happening in the world I think that too
much of the public discussion is focused
either on the wrong issues or is
extremely confused and unclear and
people are flooded by enormous amounts
of information which they don’t know how
to make sense of and what I I see my
mission is bringing clarity to the
public discussion especially in terms of
focusing people’s attention on the most
important questions I try to give some
answers to but I don’t care a lot if
people don’t agree with me about the
answers about the solutions the
important thing I think is to agree
about the questions and I would end by
saying there are three big challenges to
humankind in the 21st century there are
nuclear war climate change and
technological disruption and these
should be the first three items on the
political agenda of every country this
is not the case right now I would like
it to be the case
Yuval thank you so much for joining me
thank you that was incredible all right
guys when I say that you’re going to
learn just an absolute metric ton of
stuff from this man dive into his first
three books they are absolutely
extraordinary you will learn so much
about where we’ve come from where we’re
going and where we are today that it
will give you the ability to look at
yourself in a totally new way to
understand yourself not even just at the
operating system level but like at the
kernel level it was so fascinating to
see him walk us through that entire
lineage it’s unlike anything that I’ve
read before and reading the books as a
trilogy and understanding how they all
work together is is breathtaking so I
highly highly highly encourage that and
the fact that he’s out there in a
populist way getting people to ask these
questions I think is so critical and he
throughout go back to the beginning of
this episode he threw out some amazing
business ideas without I think even
meaning to but I thought wow somebody
could actually run with these and they
would be extraordinary and that’s just
the way his mind works he really is one
of the most profound thinkers of our
time dive in he’s accessible and that is
one of the most beautiful things and
remember he’s a historian so the way
that he’s putting this all in context is
is truly extraordinary and once you
understand things at why they are the
way they are then it just brings a whole
new ability to see through the lies fake
news the stories we tell ourselves all
of the just natural human attachments to
really come to an understanding of the
way the world actually is and once you
understand that then you can begin to
move in a way that makes sense and
allows you to reach your own goals all
right if you haven’t already be sure to
subscribe and until next time my friends
be legendary
take care camp activist I credit my
success to voracious reading and I mean
I read a lot but when I say that I read
something I actually mean that I listen
to it because I’m a ridiculously slow
reader audio books through audible have
literally been a life changer for me
because of audible I’m able to read
faster learn in transitional moments
like when I’m cooking working out or
writing
car now as you know it’s that time of
year when everyone is thinking about
thoughtful gifts so please think about
getting audible for somebody that you
love so that they can accelerate their
learning and for the holidays we have a
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use the link and information in the
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enjoy and be legendary everybody thank
you so much for watching and being a
part of this community if you haven’t
already be sure to subscribe you’re
gonna get weekly videos on building a
growth mindset cultivating grit and
unlocking your full potential

Tricks To Improve Your Credit Score

The science behind your Credit Score

LA Johnson/NPR

Credit scores. If you’ve ever rented an apartment, bought a car or applied for a loan, you know what it is. It’s a score that tells lenders how financially reliable you are and how good you are at paying off your debts. But it’s so much more than that, too.

There are rules to the credit score game. They’re just not so easy to find.

“It really is a game of the less you know, the more the person that you owe can earn from you,” says Tiffany Aliche, also known as the Budgetnista.

For example, you’ve probably heard conflicting advice when it comes to your credit, like: You should pay off your credit card in full each month. And then, no, you shouldn’t pay off your card in full each month, it’s good to leave a little balance. Aliche says there are all kinds of mixed messages on purpose.

“It’s not in a creditor’s best interest for you to know how to play the game, because if you know how to play the game, then they don’t make any money,” Aliche says.Article continues after sponsor message

But thankfully, Aliche says the rules aren’t that hard to follow once you know what they are. Out of all the basic financial tenants (debt, budgeting, investing, insurance) Aliche says credit is the easiest to manipulate.

First, we give you some tricks and tips to boost your credit score. Then we’ll give you a basic breakdown of how credit scores work.

What is considered a good credit score?

There are lots of different credit score calculators, but Aliche recommends focusing on your FICO score. “If you have a decent FICO score, which is the typical score most lenders use, then your [other] scores will probably be good no matter what credit score system someone’s using,” she says. “The FICO score ranges from 300, which is an F minus, minus, minus to 850, which is A plus, plus, plus, plus.” And she says there’s no point in trying to achieve an 850 if your score is 740 or above. “You’re likely to get a yes on most things that you ask for when it comes to your credit once you hit 740,” she says.

How can I improve my credit score?

If you have no credit, little credit or bad credit, a parent, friend or family member (who pays their bills on time and has good credit) can do something to boost your credit score. They can add you to their credit card as an authorized user…and you will inherit their good credit from that card.

“Yes, you can inherit the good behavior, but you can also inherit the bad. So you want to make sure that you are an authorized user on someone who pays off every month in full,” Aliche said.

This is Aliche’s main credit score hack.

“Really the point of an authorized user was to give younger folks access to a card that they would not normally have access to. But we’re not using it like that. We’re just using it to boost their credit score.”

Aliche’s dad actually did this for her.

If you want to add someone on as an authorized user, call your bank or credit card company and ask to add an authorized user onto your credit card. Technically, you can give this authorized user access to your physical credit card, but Aliche recommends you not do that. Just add them as a user — with no card — to boost their credit score.

Never get too close to your credit card spending limit:

Let’s say your credit card company tells you you can have a credit card with a $100 spending limit. That’s how much money you can borrow and spend. But…you actually shouldn’t spend that full amount. You shouldn’t get even close to your $100 limit. You should spend much less. Just 30% of your spending limit, so $30. If your credit card limit is $1,000, you can spend $3,000. If you spend more than 30% of your limit, that hurts your credit.

So if you have a good credit score and you want to maintain it, spending 30 percent of your credit card limit is fine. If you have a $100 credit card limit, and you only spend $30 each month, that keeps you at 30% utilization of your card, and the credit score people like that.

If you want to increase your credit score, though, you need to spend less than 30 percent of your spending limit. Only use $20 of your credit card limit. Or $15 (if your limit is $100). That shows the credit bureau that you don’t need all of their credit. And for some reason, that makes your credit score go up.

If you do need to use your full credit card limit, one way to get around this is to pay your balance before your statement date. Your statement date is different from your payment due date. The statement date is the day that credit card companies notify the credit bureaus of your card usage. If you can beat them to the punch and pay off the card before it’s reported, you can use more than 30 percent of your spending limit.

It can sometimes be hard to find your statement date, though. Aliche recommends you call your bank or credit card company directly and ask them what the statement date is.

Is it better for your credit to pay off your credit card in full each month or keep a small balance?

“Paying off a debt in full every single month is like fairy dust on your credit score. It’s like you paid off a mortgage. It’s like you paid off a car,” Aliche says. It doesn’t matter how big or small your balance is. The credit bureau just likes to see that you pay off your balance, in full, every month. It’s the habit that counts.

You might have heard it’s good to keep a small balance, but Aliche says that’s a misconception.

“Only the credit card companies want you to keep a balance, because if you don’t keep a balance, what are they going to charge you? There’s no fees when you pay off in full.”

What about asking for a credit limit increase? Can you ask for it? Will that hurt your score?

When you ask for a credit limit increase, Aliche says, the credit card company will either do a “hard inquiry” or a “soft inquiry.” A “hard inquiry” is when you give someone permission to “to see all of your grades and then they make a decision whether they want to lend to you.” That inquiry can impact your credit score.

Before you ask for an increase, ask your credit card company if it’s a hard inquiry. If it is, you need to ask yourself if it’s worth the potential credit score hit. There’s no way to know if you’ll be approved for the increase, Aliche says, but if you have strong credit (740 or above), you’re more likely to be approved.

Now, here’s some credit score 101:

What is my credit score composed of?

The five components that make up your credit score:

1. Payment history (35% of your credit score): This is the most important part of your credit score. Basically, payment history means what it sounds like: Do you pay the people you owe on time? This applies to school loans, credit cards, etc. 
2. Amounts Owed (30% of your credit score): Think of this as your spending limit. (This is the credit utilization we talked about above). You never want your credit card balance to be more than 30 percent of your spending limit.  Aliche says credit card companies have this little trigger that says, “‘Danger, danger, danger, she’s using too much of her card. She must be in financial trauma and turmoil.’ And so that’s why they punish you by bringing down your score [if you spend more than 30 percent of your credit limit]. Because if your score is low, guess what? You can’t qualify for more debt. You see, they’re literally slowing you down.” So 30 percent is a new 100 percent.
3. Length of Credit History (15% of your credit score): The longer you’ve had credit, the stronger this part of your credit score will be. Keep your oldest credit card open and pay off a small, recurring bill each month on it and you shouldn’t have to worry much about this 15 percent.
4. New Credit (10%): Each time you open a new line of credit (think: applying for a loan or new credit card) this 10 percent of your score is affected. You can lose points just by applying for a new credit card, so make sure you don’t apply for new credit unless you really need it. Buying a car or trying to get approved for a rental is probably worth it. But is that fourth credit card worth it? Maybe not. 
5. Credit Mix (10%): You don’t need to do anything for this component. Lenders just like to see that you have a mix of credit such as revolving credit like a credit card, and some installment credit loans, like a mortgage. “They just like to see that you have a mix,” Aliche says. “The longer you live, the more of a mix you’ll have.” 

What is not included in my credit score?

The credit bureaus don’t take into account your job, your income, how much money you have saved, your marital status, or if you have children.

When should I start building credit?

Start building credit when you know you can manage it effectively. Only take out credit if you know you won’t abuse it. Aliche says she would much rather someone not take out credit than to severely abuse it. “The abuse of it is way more detrimental,” than having a “thin file.”

How many lines of credit should I have?

Typically, if you’re looking to buy a home, Aliche says a bank will look for about three lines of credit. “So I guess if there was a sweet spot, it’s that: three lines of credit,” she says.

So that would be like a car payment, a credit card and a student loan. That’s three lines of credit. And if you have five lines of credit that’s not bad, Aliche says.

“It’s not necessarily bad if you’re managing them well,” she says. “To me, between three and 10 is probably best. But honestly, why do you need more than five?”

Where can I find my credit score?

Some people can find a credit score through their online banking portal. You can get your FICO score here. You can also find your score through one of the major credit reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax.

You can expect to see slightly different scores depending on where you look. Here’s more information about how to find your score.

Theory of Relativity

Video game injuries

6 Real-Life Video Game Injuries and How to Avoid Them

Joe Keeley  14-04-2020

Video games offer a wonderful escape from the real world, and are a great way to have fun and relax. There’s no doubting the benefits of playing video games. However, video game injuries, if suffered, take the enjoyment out of gaming.Advertisementnull

While your characters will often die or be badly injured, it’s also possible for gamers themselves to suffer an injury while gaming. Some are more severe than others and common video game injuries include carpal tunnel syndrome and neck pain.

In this article, we list a number of video game injuries and explain how to avoid them.

1. Computer Vision Syndrome

Image Credit: Amateur Hub/Pexels

Computer vision syndrome isn’t specific to video games, but rather any extended periods of time spent looking at a screen close-up. However, since many games have that addicting “just one more turn” feeling, it’s likely that you will experience this: around 90 percent of people who spend more than three hours at a screen will.

It’s a condition caused by looking at a screen for so long without letting your eyes relax. Focusing on something nearby for so long puts tension on your eyes. You might notice dry or irritated eyes, blurred vision, headaches, and more as a result.Advertisementnull

The best solution is to not play games for hours on end. You should also consciously blink if you feel your eyes getting tired and employ the 20-20-20 rule. This means that every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet (6.1 meters) away for 20 seconds. This allows the eyes to relax.

2. Neck and Back Pain

Image Credit: Jesper Aggergaard/Unsplash

Sitting is a major killer and you won’t help the situation by slouching in your chair or couch. Sitting increases the pressure on your lower back at the best of times—if your posture is poor, that pressure is greater.4 Serious Health Issues From Sitting Too Long (And How to Avoid Them)Sitting too long at your desk or on your couch is a modern epidemic. Here are four deadly risks to a sedentary lifestyle.Read More

This increased pressure will wear down the bones and joints. You’ll feel the pain all over your body, but primarily in the back and neck.Advertisementhttps://31e2ad758672a2ad97ad0a9901ef633e.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

Ideally, you should do some exercise every day to keep your body fit. If this isn’t possible, at the very least take a break every half hour or so to get up and walk around. It will stop your body seizing up.

While gaming, ensure your posture is correct. Sit up straight, keep the TV or monitor at eye level, arms at 90 degrees, with your feet flat on the floor. You should also invest in a supportive chair if you can afford one.

3. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Image Credit: Deeana Creates/Pexels

Carpal tunnel syndrome is when the bones and ligaments in the wrist have narrowed. This then causes the median nerve, which runs through the tunnel from your upper arm to the palm of your hand, to be pinched.Advertisementnull

This is an issue because that tunnel is very slim. Any strain is going to be felt in your hand and cause a tingling sensation. This will then progress to numbness and pain.

One way that carpal tunnel syndrome occurs is due to repeatedly bending the wrist, like when typing or clicking the mouse, or from holding a controller for a long time.

You can wear a wrist splint at night to help keep the wrist straight. Also, you can try wrist exercises, though there’s limited evidence to their usefulness. Ideally, buy ergonomic equipment such as vertical mice to reduce the wrist strain.The 7 Best Ergonomic Vertical MiceIf you experience wrist pain, a vertical mouse might be for you. Here are the best vertical mice to get you started.Read More

4. Seizure

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You might have noticed that many video games come with an epilepsy warning. This is because video games were medically recorded as causing seizures in the early 1980s, after which console manufacturers were required to include epilepsy warnings with their systems.

You are only at risk of a seizure if you suffer from photosensitivity. In video games, the seizure can be brought on by aspects like lights flashing repeatedly or stripes of contrasting colors. Some games do have a setting to turn off specific elements that might cause a seizure, so do check for this.

The chance of suffering a seizure is small, but it’s still a risk. You should know if this applies to you. Speak to a doctor if so. Advice they might give you, short of not playing video games at all, is to sit further back from the screen, adjust the screen’s brightness, and be surrounded by natural light.

5. Full-Contact Injuries

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Gaming used to be a sedentary hobby, but the advent of the Wii took many people off their couch… and swinging their bodies around wildly. News reports at the time talked of gamers who had fallen over or whacked someone in the face with a controller.

It wasn’t just people that were being damaged, but TV screens too! In fact, Nintendo had to issue advice on how to use the Wii controllers safely and started packing them in protective silicone to try to limit damage.

While the Wii is an old console now, similar physical injuries are still a risk. With virtual reality growing, it’s still possible to have a full-contact injury while gaming. Before playing, ensure that you have enough space around you and that you hold on to the controllers properly.

If you’re about to play an intense game, you might even want to stretch and warm up.

6. Obesity

Image Credit: Christopher Williams/Unsplash

Being obese means that you’re severely overweight. While it isn’t an injury in itself, it is a condition that will lead to problems.

Children are spending less time outdoors and more time inside playing games. Leading a sedentary lifestyle is more likely to cause obesity due to the lack of physical exercise. There’s also some evidence to show that obsessive gamers eat more while gaming, even if they’re not hungry.

The easiest way to combat this is to get outside and work out. Go for a run, play a sport, or hit the gym. To ease into this, you could try some physical fitness video games, like those that get you dancing or exercising.

Work Out and Stay Active

While there’s no doubting the joys of gaming, it isn’t a hobby you should do all of the time. Many of these injuries can be avoided simply by spending less time playing games and more time being physically fit.

Rotator Cuff Tendonitis

Rotator Cuff Tendonitis Fundamentals

The rotator cuff is a group of four tendons that covers the humeral head and controls arm rotation and elevation. These muscles and their tendons work together with the deltoid muscle to provide motion and strength to the shoulder for all waist-level and shoulder-level or above activities.

Rotator cuff tendonitis is an inflammation of a group of muscles in the shoulder together with an inflammation of the lubrication mechanism called the BURSA. In fact, ‘bursitis’ should not be considered a diagnosis but rather a symptom of rotator cuff tendonitis.

This condition is often caused by or associated with repetitive overhead activities such as throwing, raking, washing cars or windows and many other types of highly repetitive motions. It may also occur as a result of an injury. Rotator cuff injuries are the most common cause of shoulder pain and limitation of activities in sports in all age groups. Rotator cuff tendonitis is the mildest form of rotator cuff injury.

The shoulder has a unique arrangement of muscle and bone. The rotator cuff (which is muscle) is sandwiched between two bones much like a sock lies between the heel and the edge of a shoe. In the same way that repeated walking eventually wears out the sock, the rotator cuff muscles fray with repeated rubbing on the bone. As the muscle begins to fray, it responds to the injury by becoming inflamed and painful. With continued fraying, like a rope, it may eventually tear.

What are the symptoms?

The classic symptoms include a ‘toothache’ like pain radiating from the outer arm to several inches below the top of the shoulder. Pain may also occur in the front and top of the shoulder. It may interfere with sleeping comfortably. It may even awaken people from a sound sleep with a nagging pain in the upper arm.

The symptoms are usually aggravated by raising the arms overhead or in activities that require reaching behind the body, such as retrieving an object from the back seat of a car. Furthermore, reaching behind the back to fasten underclothing or to pass a belt may aggravate the arm and shoulder pain.

A clicking in the shoulder may occur when raising the arm above the head.

What are my treatment options?

A thorough history and physical examwill nearly always lead to a correct diagnosis. X-rays will often show changes on the arm bone where the rotator cuff muscles attach, but an MRI provides the definitive diagnosis. This test clearly shows the muscles and indicates if the muscle is inflamed, injured or torn.

Medical

The following steps should be taken as a conservative approach to treating rotator cuff tendonitis:

• Stop or markedly decrease the activity that required the use of the shoulder at or above shoulder level.
• Apply ice to the affected area.
• Take anti-inflammatory medicationto reduce arm and shoulder pain.
• Begin an exercise program to maintain flexibility.
• Avoid carrying heavy objects with the affected arm or using shoulder-strap bags on the affected side.

In the early phases, over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications may provide benefit. However, to allow the inflammation to resolve, it is vital to curtail any repetitive activity and it is equally important to try to keep the elbow below the shoulder level when using the arm.

Daily stretching while in a hot shower is also beneficial. If shoulder pain becomes more severe, prescription strength medication or a cortisone type injection may help.

Cortisone injections can be very effective in the treatment of the pain. When used, injections should be done in conjunction with a home exercise program for flexibility and strengthening, modification of activities and ice. Other pain controlling options include heat, ice, ultrasound and therapeutic massage.

For a young patient under the age of 30 and with a first time episode of rotator cuff tendonitis that is treated immediately with the above protocol, the average length of time for rehabilitation is two to four weeks. For those with recurrent episodes of tendonitis and some risk factors, rotator cuff tendonitis may take months to heal and in rare cases may require surgery.

Surgical

If symptoms persist, surgery to remove a spur on the acromion can increase the space available for the inflamed tendon and may prevent further fraying or complete rupture. If an MRI shows a complete muscle injury, surgical repair may be required.

Surgery for recurrent rotator cuff tendonitis (bursitis) is occasionally performed to:

• Remove a prominence or spur on the undersurface of the acromion.
• Remove chronically inflamed, thickened and fibrotic bursal tissue.
• Inspect the tendons and tidy up and sometimes repair a tear in the tendons.

These procedures are often done in combination. This can be done either through an open or an arthroscopic approach with the start of an early rehabilitation program one or two days after surgery and advancing to a more comprehensive program between two and five weeks after surgery. The initiation and progression of these exercises is dependent upon the patient’s findings at surgery, surgical procedure and rate of healing.

• Download a Free Guide on Shoulder Pain

Aperture/Iris & ISO/Gain EXPLAINED – Manual Video Exposure

Aperture – F Stop

How to understand f-stops

What are the f-stops on your camera or lens? And what kind of effect does changing them have? Our chart explains all

Scroll down for your cheat sheet

Even if you’ve never changed the f-stop on your lens or through your camera, you’ve probably noticed this setting at some point. While its entirely possible to leave the camera to deal with this and never adjust it yourself, it’s arguably the most important thing to learn if you really want to take charge of your photography. 

Definition: What are f-stops?

Otherwise known as aperture, the f-stop regulates the amount of light that can pass through a lens at a given shutter speed. Assuming nothing else changes, a small aperture will let in less light than a larger one, so it would take longer for the same quantity of light to pass through to the sensor. It works on the same principle as an hourglass, in that the size of the opening between the two chambers dictates how long a quantity of sand will pass from the top to the bottom.

Read more: Cheat sheet: Landscape photography checklistRECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU…CLOSEhttps://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.384.1_en.html#goog_1485394529Volume 0% PLAY SOUND

So, the smaller the aperture, the longer the shutter speed you’ll need in a given scenario. You can see this for yourself by setting your camera to its Aperture priority mode and adjusting the aperture in either direction: the shutter speed should change with every click of the dial.

Something that confuses a lot of novice photographers is that small physical apertures have high f-stop numbers such as f/16 and f/22, while large (or ‘wide’) apertures have low f-stop numbers such as f/1.4 and f/2. You can read why this is here. 

So, what kind of impact does the f-stop, or aperture, have on your image? First, it has the potential to affect exposure, although whether it does so depends on the exposure mode you use. If you use the Manual mode, for example, and just change the aperture without also changing the shutter speed, your image will become darker or lighter depending on which you adjust this. In the Aperture priority mode, however, your camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed as you do this to keep the same balanced exposure at all times.

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‘STOPPING DOWN’ AND ‘OPENING UP’

Ever hear these terms? Stopping down the lens or aperture simply means to make the aperture smaller, such as from f/8 to f/11. Opening up, meanwhile, means doing the opposite. 

Whichever mode you use, changing aperture has an effect on depth of field. Depth of field concerns the extent to which different areas in the scene are rendered in focus, and a photographer will typically use a medium or small aperture to achieve more definition throughout. Depth of field does, however, also depend on other factors, such as where you focus in the scene.

Read more: Cheat sheet: How to read a histogram

There are issues with using both very small and very wide apertures, so you need to judge this from scene to scene to understand which setting is most appropriate. Wide apertures are great for isolating subjects from their backgrounds, but images can be softer at these settings due to an effect known as spherical aberration. 

Particularly wide apertures can also be tricky to use in bright conditions, as your camera may not be able to use a fast enough shutter speed to keep everything exposed correctly, which leads to overexposed images.

Small apertures, meanwhile, can make an effect known as diffraction more prominent, which also has a softening effect on images. These apertures are also harder to use when hand-holding a camera, as the smaller the aperture the longer the shutter speed you need – and at some point you simply won’t be able to hold it steady enough to produce a sharp image. Here, a tripod or an effective image stabilization system can help.

F Stop cheatsheet

Click the top-right-hand corner to enlarge the image

Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans

Michael Moore presents Planet of the Humans, a documentary that dares to say what no one else will this Earth Day — that we are losing the battle to stop climate change on planet earth because we are following leaders who have taken us down the wrong road — selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America. This film is the wake-up call to the reality we are afraid to face: that in the midst of a human-caused extinction event, the environmental movement’s answer is to push for techno-fixes and band-aids.

It’s too little, too late. Donate: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr… (100% of donations go to translation, further articles and viewing & maintaining wide distribution)

Interview with Jeff, Michael, and Ozzie (1hr 16min): https://youtu.be/HBGcEK8FD3w Hill TV Response to critics with Jeff, Michael and Ozzie (17min): https://youtu.be/Bop8x24G_o0 FAQ, Discussion Guide, Media: https://planetofthehumans.com/

Removed from the debate is the only thing that MIGHT save us: getting a grip on our out-of-control human presence and consumption. Why is this not THE issue? Because that would be bad for profits, bad for business. Have we environmentalists fallen for illusions, “green” illusions, that are anything but green, because we’re scared that this is the end—and we’ve pinned all our hopes on biomass, wind turbines, and electric cars? No amount of batteries are going to save us, warns director Jeff Gibbs (lifelong environmentalist and co-producer of “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Bowling for Columbine”).

This urgent, must-see movie, a full-frontal assault on our sacred cows, is guaranteed to generate anger, debate, and, hopefully, a willingness to see our survival in a new way—before it’s too late. Featuring: Al Gore, Bill McKibben, Richard Branson, Robert F Kennedy Jr., Michael Bloomberg, Van Jones, Vinod Khosla, Koch Brothers, Vandana Shiva, General Motors, 350.org, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sierra Club, the Union of Concerned Scientists, Nature Conservancy, Elon Musk, Tesla. Website: https://planetofthehumans.com/

Fossil Fuels

The Four Types of Fossil Fuels

With the 21st century edging into third decade, few terms in the everyday English language are more loaded or contentious than fossil fuel.

The U.S. alone consumes about a million kilojoules (kJ) of energy per person per day. In order for the world to meet the energy demands inherent in a global civilization dependent on galactic amounts of fuel for transportation, electricity production, home and commercial use, and industrial applications, a correspondingly rich source of energy is required.

As of 2019, fossil fuels – petroleum, coal and natural gas, with production a fourth type having ceased in 2006 – provided the majority of this energy. Despite the controversies over their impact and the intense effort to develop alternatives to fossil fuels (i.e., “clean” energy, much of it in the form of “renewables”), these fuels changed the world almost overnight and remain indispensable today, however uncomfortably.

About the Name “Fossil Fuel”

All fossil fuels in existence were produced over a long time period from the remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. The slow transformation of this carbon-heavy material into various hydrocarbon compounds resulted in the creation of plentiful, highly flammable fuels.

But to call these fuels the products of fossils is incorrect. Fossils – which represent the impressions of old life forms, not their remains – are also extraordinarily old, but this is about all they have in common with fossil fuels. The underlying connotation that these fuels might be in some way precious, though, is on target.

Overview of the Four Fossil Fuels

The four types of fossil fuels are petroleum, coal, natural gas and Orimulsion (capitalized because it is a proprietary, or trade, name). They have a number of important physical, chemical and other properties in common, but perhaps the most critical fact about fossil fuels is that they are not renewable. Once they are used up, that’s it; many more millions of years have to pass before even small amounts can be made again, assuming the same processes will ever even occur on the same scale.

Also, fossil fuels in their natural form store tremendous amounts of carbon, keeping it from leaking into the atmosphere. Burning them, however, “unlocks” the carbon and returns it to the atmosphere at rates far faster than even would occur without human industry in the mix. The combustion of fossil fuels plays an established role in the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) that has been underway for decades and is already damaging ecosystems around the planet.

Petroleum

In the year 2017, petroleum – in other words, crude oil and substances known as “natural gas plant liquids” – accounted for 28 percent of American primary energy production. The U.S., while perhaps regarded by many of its own citizens as mainly an oil-importing nation, is actually among the top oil producers in the world. Thanks to the reputation of some Middle Eastern nations as effectively controlling most of the world’s oil production, and to undeniably sky-high U.S. oil consumption, this fact is often obscured.

Because the petroleum product gasoline is relatively portable compared to coal, most petroleum production and use is in the transportation sector. In fact, 71 percent of energy used in the U.S. transportation sector is supplied by petroleum, which plays virtually no role in the generation of electrical power.

• In 2018, over half of U.S. oil produced came from two states alone: Texas and North Dakota.

Coal

Coal supplied about 18 percent of U.S. energy needs in 2017. The total amount produced was 775 million short tons, and this coal came from a total of 24 U.S. states. Wyoming by far contributed the greatest share at 41 percent, with West Virginia a distant second at 12 percent. A decade earlier, coal’s contribution to American energy production was just slightly lower than that of natural gas, 23 percent to 22 percent.

The solid nature of coal makes it ideally suited for keeping in one place for electricity production, and this has been its overwhelming role in the energy game over the years. Coal production in 2017 was about the same as it was in 1979, but the U.S. population also grew by about 100 million people in that time. As coal production for electricity has dropped in favor of other sources, coal’s overall role in the fuel economy has diminished.

Coal is about 70 to 90 percent carbon by mass. Four subtypes exist, all with different properties in terms the amount of energy liberated from the breaking of carbon bonds when the coal is burned.

Natural Gas

Natural gas accounted for 32 percent of the American energy share in 2017, and total production was the second-highest ever. In fact, beginning in about 2005, natural gas became more accessible in much of the United States thanks to the increased use of horizontal drilling and the well-stimulation technique known as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”).

The rise of fracking in the early 21st century – a practice controversial because it consumes vast amounts of water, invariably disturbs the local environment and may even have the potential to cause small earthquakes – is tied to the decision on the part of a Texas oil company to try to extract natural gas from a kind of rock called shale, abundant in that part of the country. The commercial success of the technique led to its adoption by other companies in other areas where shale is found.

• Natural gas is considered clean-burning compared to other fossil fuels; it is getting it out of the ground that is the most problematic aspect of its production.

Orimulsion: A Flash in the Energy Pan

Off the coast of Venezuela sits the Orinoco Oil Belt, which is home to a unique repository of an especially heavy type of oil. Starting in 1991, this was made into a proprietary product called Orimulsion, which consisted of 70 percent heavy oil and 30 percent water. It was hoped that this could cut significantly into the fossil-fuel market share, but production was stopped in 2006.

As of 2016, some 1.2 trillion barrels’ worth of Orimulsion-ready oil was believed to still be sitting in the Orinoco Oil Belt.

Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy Sources

By the early 2000s, the term “renewables” has become just as much of a friendly term in environmental circles as “fossil fuels” had become an unwanted guest. As a result, renewables and nuclear power (considered “clean,” but a source of energy with many detractors) accounted for 23 percent of U.S. energy in 2017.

But fossil fuels, despite occasional dire predictions about flagging underground stores, are in no danger of running out anytime soon even at current levels of use. Unless policies radically change, fossil fuels are expected to still account for 78 percent of energy used worldwide in 2040. This might actually be a bad thing for Earth as a whole as it fails to fully force humanity to cohesively pursue a workable and sustainable energy agenda that both meets global power needs while permitting the avoidance of a global-warming disaster.