But What If We're Wrong? (26 page)

God and the simulation hypothesis,
124
–27

Gone Girl
(Flynn),
53

“good job” response to art,
188
–89

Goodman, John,
174

Gore, Al,
197
–98

gorillas,
255
–56

GQ
,
242
–43

Grand Theft Auto (video game),
128

Grant, Ulysses S.,
206

gravity

Aristotle's ideas about,
5
,
101

author's knowledge of,
3

evolution of ideas about,
3
–7

temperature analogy,
4
n

greatness,
51
n

Greene, Brian,
3
–4,
101
–8,
112
–14,
124
–25

Gross, David,
104
n

Gumbel, Bryant,
185

Halley's Comet,
136

Hannibal's crossing of the Alps,
156
–57

Harbaugh, Jim,
185

Hard Rain
(album),
75

Hardcore History
(podcast),
201
–3

Harrison, George,
84
n

heliocentrism,
117

Hellman, Martin,
260

Hemingway, Ernest,
93

Hendrix, Jimi,
60

“Here Comes the Sun” (song),
84

Hero with a Thousand Faces,
The
(Campbell),
74
n

hero's journey,
74

Hersh, Seymour,
151
–53

Herzen, Alexander,
201

Hidden Reality, The
(Greene),
103

Higgs boson (“God particle”),
130
–31

historical figure game,
155
–56

history

confirming,
151
,
153
–57,
203
–5

revisionist,
233
–35

History: Fiction or Science?
(Fomenko),
135
n

Hobson, John Allan,
138

Homer,
147
–48

Horgan, John,
223
–27

How Music Works
(Byrne),
69

human brain, mapping,
228
–29

Hunter, Tab,
79

“Hurricane” (song),
75

identity politics,
25
–30

Illig, Heribert,
134

“I'm Eighteen” (song),
144

immortality, achieving,
228
–29

Independence Day
(film),
243

inequality of similar people,
212
–14

Infinite Jest
(Wallace),
48

infinity,
103
–4

information

collective server for brain's contents,
228
–29

decentralization,
40
–41,
86

limited,
11
–12

instability of the world,
10

intelligence

cognitive,
256

emotional,
256
–57

of octopuses,
253
–54

international relations,
15
,
17

Internet culture

blogging,
231
–32

conventional,
36
,
86

Deep Web,
37
–39

The Dress (viral phenomenon),
146
–47

early adopters,
231

fluidity of history,
235
–36

start of,
229

unlikely relationships,
236

“You're doing it wrong” argument,
242

Jackson, Michael,
1
,
67

James, Skip,
81

Jefferson, Thomas,
213
,
214

Jenner, Caitlyn (formerly Bruce),
29

Jesus,
135

“Johnny B. Goode” (song),
84

Johnson, Lyndon,
204
n

Jonson, Ben,
94

Journey,
71

Jung, Carl,
74
n
,
138

Kael, Pauline,
186

Kafka, Franz,
31
–32,
35
–36,
38
–39

Kasparov, Garry,
136

Kennedy, John F.,
17
,
218

“Killing of Osama bin Laden, The” (Hersh),
151
–53

King, Stephen,
27
–28

Klosterman, Chuck, background,
195
–96

Klosterman's Razor,
17
,
42
–43

Knausgaard, Karl Ove,
213

Koko (gorilla),
255
–56

Krakauer, Jon,
52

Kuhn, Thomas,
114
–16,
224
–26

Kurzweil, Ray,
228

L.A. Noire (video game),
128
–29

language

describing colors,
147
–48

permanence of words,
19
–21

TV dialogue,
166
–67

unfamiliarity of,
57

Large Hadron Collider (LHC),
130
–31

Lear, Norman,
173

Led Zeppelin,
60
n

Lennon, John,
60
n
,
67
n
,
86

Lethem, Jonathan,
86
–87

Lewis, Jerry Lee,
60
n
,
79

Lewis, Sinclair,
92

lies and untruths,
154
–57

life after death,
11
–12

Limbaugh, Rush,
185

Lincoln, Abraham,
24
,
96
,
173
n
,
218

Linklater, Richard,
139
–44,
150
–51

literature, criticism of,
7
–8,
10

London Review of Books
,
151

lucid dreaming,
137
,
141

Lugar, Richard,
260

MacCambridge, Michael,
181

machines, and attempts to kill people,
227

Mad Men
(TV show),
164
–65

Madison, James,
207
,
210

Mahler, Jonathan,
152

Man Without a Country, A
(Vonnegut),
43

Manhattan, attack on police in,
150
–51

marching music,
64
–65

marginalization,
41
–42,
81

Marley, Bob,
65

Marlowe, Christopher,
94

“Mathematics of the Past” (Kasparov),
136

Mathog, Mike,
109
n

Matrix, The
(film),
28
–30,
122
n
,
227

Maugham, W. Somerset,
31

Mayweather–Pacquiao fight (2015),
187

McCarley, Robert,
138

McCartney, Paul,
67

McLaughlin, John,
245
–48

McLaughlin Group, The
(TV show),
245
–47

media alienation,
47
–48

Meltzer, Richard,
61

Melville, Herman,
7
–9,
21
–22,
31
–32

memory,
150
–51,
230

Mencken, H. L.,
233

merit,
89
–94

Metamorphosis, The
(Kafka),
36

Miami Herald,
The
,
234
n

Millay, Edna St. Vincent,
93

Moby-Dick
(Melville),
7
–10,
21
–22

modern verification process,
154
–55

Mondale, Walter,
204

monomyth (hero's journey),
74

Moore, Michael,
197

morality,
126
–28

Moravec, Hans,
121

Morozov, Nikolai,
135

movies.
See
film industry

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus,
72
,
73

multiverse hypothesis,
103
–5,
119
–20

music

author's qualifications as a critic,
95
–96

blues,
81

classical,
72
,
73

critics' role,
78
–79

decline in interest,
63
–64

dominance of single artist,
64
–66

electronic dance music (EDM),
79

for extraterrestrials,
83
–84

finding the best example of a genre,
85
–87

industry,
14
n

marching,
64
–65

1920s,
77

punk-vs.-disco divide of the 1970s,
79
–80

records and LPs,
19
–20,
81
,
83
–84

repurposing rock songs,
62
–63

rock,
14
,
60
–87,
92
n
,
95
,
161

rock and roll,
59
–60,
68
,
74
,
82
,
86
.
See also
rock music

rock 'n' roll,
59
–60,
72
,
78
,
82
,
85
,
159
.
See also
rock music

skiffle,
161

My Struggle: Book 2
(Knausgaard),
213

myth of universal timeliness,
44
–45

Nagel, Thomas,
254

naïve realism,
10
–11,
34
,
116
,
239

NASA,
83
–84,
118
–19

Nashville
(TV show),
170
,
171
n

National Football League (NFL),
180
–81,
182
–83

Native American population,
41
–42

Navy SEALs, and assassination of bin Laden,
151

near-death experiences,
141
–42

Neptune, discovery of,
109

Never Mind the Bollocks
(album),
79
–80

Nevermind
(album),
92
n

New Musical Express
(
NME
),
79

New Republic, The
,
154
n
,
235

New York
magazine,
217

New York Times, The
,
25
,
26
,
150
–51,
154
n

New York Times Magazine,
The
,
22
–23,
152
,
255

New Yorker, The
,
177
,
189
,
258

Newton, Isaac,
3
–4,
5
–6,
105
,
108
–9,
110
,
112
,
149

Newton's Third Law,
119

Niemitz, Hans-Ulrich,
134

9/11 attacks,
41
,
48
n
,
199

Nirvana,
70
,
92
n

Nixon, Richard,
186

“normal science,”
115
–16

“now,” perpetual sense of,
232

nuclear weapons,
260
–61

numerical constants,
124
–25,
130

Nussbaum, Emily,
164

Obama, Barack,
1
,
217
–18

objective ranking,
94

Occam's Razor,
17

octopuses,
253
–54

Odd Clauses,
The
(Wexler),
208

Ohio,
196
–97

“On Colors” (Aristotle),
111

On the Genealogy of Color
(Adams),
148

“100 Notable Books” (
The New York Times
, 2014),
25
–27

“100 Notable Books” (
The New York Times
, 2015),
26
n

Oswald, Lee Harvey,
17

outdated thinking,
247

overthinking,
39

Page, Jimmy,
85

Pakistan, and assassination of bin Laden,
151

paradigm shifts in science,
114
–15,
117
–18,
120
–21

Particle Fever
(film),
130
–31

patriotism,
219

persecution, cultural,
187
–88

Pet Rocks,
182

Petrusich, Amanda,
80
–82

Phantom Time Hypothesis,
134
–37

Dark Ages,
145

evidence against,
135
–36

“major theory,”
135

“minor theory,”
134

New Chronology,
135

role of historical figures,
135

Russia, centrality of,
136

physics,
108
,
110
–11,
113
–14,
130
–31

Physics
(Aristotle),
5

Piper, “Rowdy” Roddy,
234

Plato,
215
,
219

poetry,
93
–94

political polarization,
198
–99

Polybius of Megalopolis,
157
n

popular, how things become,
182

Portland, Oregon,
259
,
261