500 to 1000 kinds of bugs live in our mouths and most of them seem to be ok or even beneficial but we don't know them all or their interrelations. David Gallo says that scientists have explored about 3% of the area and depths of the oceans. At depths that were long thought to be impossible for anything to live, they have found more life than found in the Amazon rain forest, thought to be the life-richest place. David Cannadine and other historians and researchers are showing good and convincing evidence that many of the pictures I learned in school of what went on during the years between humans started wandering over the planet and my birth were quite limited. Not always wrong but limited.
Of course, why wouldn't they be? They themselves were limited, just like me. I am designed a lot like a chimp or a bonobo. I like a good meal and I am built to find one or somebody who can make one. I am impressed by and interested in the opposite sex. I have a big brain that likes stimulation and interesting objects and thoughts, up to a point. I like a good nap and a nice walk. I like a good stretch and talking with friends. I like clever talk and good stories.
How would I know about speaking a foreign tongue, or playing cat gut stretched over thin wood? How could I ever learn about mouth bugs or ocean life or past eras? My knowledge of everything is limited and a good chunk of it is irrelevant. I know the name of the street my grandparents lived on when I was a kid but haven't used that knowledge in years. Some of what I know is no longer correct but I don't know which part, even though I have my wife handy to correct me as often as she can manage. Every day, I get still another reminder that I don't know that much and that neither do most of us.
