“Like falling down a rabbit hole with a stand-up philosopher.”
This book is like eavesdropping on a brilliant, slightly unhinged dinner guest after two glasses of wine — in the best way possible. Each chapter takes you somewhere unexpected: one minute you’re pondering the meaning of life, the next you’re questioning your shoe choices, your political beliefs, and whether anything matters anyway.
Ross Scafidas writes with the rare ability to be both hilarious and profound. It’s part Bill Bryson, part Greek uncle ranting at a café, and part cosmic therapy session. I laughed, I thought deeply, I Googled things. Ten out of ten brain cells were entertained.
( My mom’s review)
“Like falling down a rabbit hole with a stand-up philosopher.”
This book is like eavesdropping on a brilliant, slightly unhinged dinner guest after two glasses of wine — in the best way possible. Each chapter takes you somewhere unexpected: one minute you’re pondering the meaning of life, the next you’re questioning your shoe choices, your political beliefs, and whether anything matters anyway.
Ross Scafidas writes with the rare ability to be both hilarious and profound. It’s part Bill Bryson, part Greek uncle ranting at a café, and part cosmic therapy session. I laughed, I thought deeply, I Googled things. Ten out of ten brain cells were entertained.
( My mom’s review)
Acknowledgments. 4
INTRODUCTION.. 10
The chaotic curiosity that sparked this book and the strange logic of rabbit-hole thinking.
HUMAN LIFE VS. EARTH LIFE. 13
A cosmic reality check on how briefly humans have existed — and how loudly we’ve made ourselves heard.
POPULATION COLLAPSE. 17
From baby booms to baby busts, how civilisation might quietly fade out while watching Netflix.
IS THE EARTH DIEING?. 22
The planet is fine. It’s humans who need saving — preferably before beachfronts reach Kansas.
THE UNIVERSE’S STRANGE CONNECTION.. 26
Quantum entanglement, cosmic Wi-Fi, and why the universe might be one big group chat.
BEFORE THE BIG BANG.. 30
Did something exist before everything? Or is that just our brains short-circuiting on the question of time?
EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENTS. 34
The five times Earth hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE — and why the next mass extinction might be homemade.
CHANGING THE WAY WE THINK.. 38
Neuroplasticity and how your brain is less a finished product and more a work-in-progress spaghetti blob.
HOW WILL THE UNIVERSE END?. 43
Big Freeze, Big Rip, or Big Crunch — take your pick. Just don’t expect fireworks.
TIED UP IN CONTRADICTIONS. 48
Why Fifty Shades of Grey exploded in a feminist world — and what that says about fantasy, freedom, and filters.
CAPITALISM.. 52
Monopoly, billionaires, and why Dave always ends up owning Boardwalk and everyone else’s soul.
SCHOOL DAZE. 58
Why modern schooling still feels like a Victorian obedience factory — and what education could be instead.
THE IMPACT OF AI ON OUR SOULS. 64
What happens when AI takes your job, cooks your meals, and leaves you with nothing to do but exist?
HOW NOT TO DIE SOON.. 70
The scientifically boring secrets to living longer — and why they’re more effective than superfood dust.
WE ARE ALL ONE. 75
Quantum physics meets ancient mysticism. Are religion and science just using different metaphors?
REALITY.EXE. 80
Simulation theory, digital déjà vu, and why the universe might just be the world’s weirdest software.
"LAZY,OR JUST TRAUMATIZED?". 85
A defense of modern Greeks — and how 400 years of Ottoman rule shaped a healthy distrust of government paperwork.
MANS BEST FRIENDS. 89
How dogs, goats, and sheep weren’t just our first companions — they were the co-founders of civilisation.
MEN ARE FROM MARS WOMAN ARE NOT. 94
The Gender Equality Paradox, nature vs. nurture, and why sameness isn’t the same as fairness.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT BIRKENSTOCKS. 99
The fashion revolution no man asked for, and why clunky sandals might secretly be a power move.
TRUMP’S MAGA LOMANIA.. 103
Why agreeing with Trump sometimes feels worse than disagreeing — and what that says about modern discourse.
OUR MEMORIES LIE. 107
The Mandela Effect, false memories, and why your brain is less like a hard drive and more like a drunk novelist.
LUXURY AND OUR VALUE. 111
Why humans spend insane money on logos — and what that says about insecurity, identity, and our fragile egos.
THE PURSUIT OF SLIGHTLY ELEVATED CONTENTMENT 116
What economists, Buddhists, scientists and psychologists all agree on (sort of) about real happiness.
TO PROUD TO KNOW WHEN TO CALL IT QUITS. 121
How inclusion became institutionalized confusion, and why the alphabet soup might need a stirring spoon.
YOU’RE A MAN NOW SAY SORRY! 125
The strange cultural guilt trip of modern masculinity — and why men are quietly checking out.
THE ELUSIVE QUEST FOR OBJECTIVITY.. 130
Why we’re all hopelessly biased — and how real understanding starts when we admit it.
OUTSIDERS IN OUR OWN LIVES. 134
Living in third-person, curating our identities, and why we feel more like characters than people.
SELF DISCIPLINE AND THE MARSHMALOW... 137
Why we can’t stop eating the marshmallow — and how to build a life worth sticking with.
ALIEN VISITORS OR NOT.. 142
Why it’s easier to believe in extraterrestrials than in ancient humans being really clever with rocks.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER.. 147
A final zoom-out. The randomness, the wonder, the chaos of thought — and the shared dot we all live on.
THE PALE BLUE DOT.. 151
Bibliography.. 153
INTRODUCTION
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." — Albert Einstein
At any given moment, my brain is bouncing around. It drives my wife crazy. One second, I’m thinking about one thing, and the next, I’m off in another direction without knowing I’ve moved on or even realizing I left the station. I forget where I started, I have no direction, but I keep going. Before I know it, I’m googling like crazy—because, naturally, one thing always leads to another, and I HAVE TO HAVE ANSWERS!
Some might call this an undiagnosed case of ADHD. I prefer to think of it as simple curiosity.
If you’re holding this book, I’m guessing you know the feeling. That itch to understand the weird, the wonderful, and the completely bizarre. The thrill of discovering that the world is not what you thought it was—that history is full of strange twists, science is stranger than fiction, and reality itself is up for debate. Just getting an answer to the simplest of questions I had no answer for a few seconds ago feels like a triumph.
This book is a product of that mindset. Each chapter starts with a question or a simple idea that popped into my head—some of them big, some of them small, all of them fascinating in ways you might not expect (to me anyway). And just like my brain, it refuses to stay in one lane. Hopefully you’ll find interest in some of the ideas explored, because they are not entirely random. They are, after all, something I wanted to know... and that’s the fun of it.
One idea leads to another, and another, and soon you’re in a full-blown internet rabbit hole at 2 a.m. with 37 tabs open and no memory of how you got there.
Knowledge isn’t linear. It doesn’t arrive in neatly packaged subjects or tidy PowerPoint slides. It’s a series of ripples—one thought sparks another, which connects to something unexpected, and suddenly you’re seeing patterns you didn’t know existed. That’s how this book works, too. A little chaos, a little logic, a lot of questions, and just enough structure to keep the train loosely on the tracks.
But let me be clear: I’m not trying to teach you anything. This isn’t a textbook. I’m not an expert. I don’t claim to have the answers. I’m just thinking out loud, with a bit of research to support my meandering. Some chapters are based on strange facts, others on odd contradictions I’ve noticed, and most are just humble attempts to make sense of things that don’t make much sense at all. Sometimes I come to a conclusion. Sometimes I just come to a pause.
I don’t take myself too seriously, and I hope you won’t either. This is meant to be fun,a bit weird and hopefully occasionally insightful. Maybe you’ll find a nugget or two worth mulling over. Or maybe you’ll just enjoy the randomness of it all and feel a little less alone in your own strange thoughts.
So, consider this your invitation to wander with me. Let’s chase some ideas, connect some dots, and get lost in the great mess of it all.
HUMAN LIFE VS. EARTH LIFE
"We are an impossibility in an impossible universe."
—Ray Bradbury
Cosmically speaking, humans have barely arrived on Earth and already we're acting like we own the place. How funny is that? The ultimate group of Narcissists all in one dot.
Consider this: our planet, at roughly 4.54 billion years old (give or take a Tuesday), has seen quite a bit. Humans? A mere 300,000 years. Imagine Earth’s entire history as one 24-hour day. Life begins early, spending hours leisurely evolving slime and sea creatures. Dinosaurs lumber around for a good forty-five minutes, thoroughly enjoying their tenure before a rock from space rudely ends the party. Humans stroll in at 11:59:56 pm—yes, with just four seconds to spare—and immediately behave like we're the guests of honour.
In that blink of an eye, we've invented the wheel, figured out farming, built pyramids, sent rovers to Mars, split atoms, and created an entire economy from people filming their breakfast and posting cat videos. Frankly, it's a miracle Earth hasn't asked for a refund.
To get a sense of just how brief our tenure has been, here’s Earth’s résumé: formed about 4.54 billion years ago from cosmic debris (essentially the universe's version of spring cleaning). Life eventually crawled out of oceanic primordial soup about 3.8 billion years ago—simple bacteria contentedly multiplying without ever worrying about taxes or existential dread. Complex life, with things like brains and anxiety, finally appeared around 600 million years ago, which eventually gives rise to creatures capable of being startled by their own reflections.
Humans enter the scene a mere 300,000 years ago, fashionably late and immediately taking control like a spoilt brat. We settled down about 12,000 years ago with farming, effectively ending humanity’s nomadic backpacker phase. Then comes the industrial revolution around 200 years ago, which dramatically increases our ability to turn beautiful natural scenery into smog and overpriced coffee shops. Then, just 50 years ago, we invented the internet, catapulting civilization to its logical apex: spinning dog and evil child eye memes.
We think ourselves terribly important, but when you crunch the numbers, we've only been around for 0.007% of Earth's lifetime. If the entire history of Earth was a book, humanity would barely be a footnote scribbled hastily in pencil on the last page. Possibly misspelled.
Yet, despite this brief cameo, we humans have left quite an impression—and not always the good kind. If Earth was a rental property, we’d be the tenants who showed up last night, clogged the toilets, cracked open all the windows in winter, and accidentally set the curtains on fire while trying to make popcorn.
Scientists often remind us that civilizations come and go with disturbing regularity. The dinosaurs, Earth's former tenants, ruled for a leisurely 165 million years. Humans have been here for less time than it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn in cosmic terms, yet we've already begun messing with Earth's thermostat and rearranging furniture without permission.
So, what’s our prognosis? If we continue at our current pace, within a hundred years, Earth might resemble a summer barbecue that’s gotten wildly out of hand—ice melting, sea levels rising, and parts of Florida becoming prime real estate for aspiring scuba divers. Extend that timeline slightly, say a couple of centuries, and humanity faces an array of existential threats ranging from asteroids, super volcanoes, and artificial intelligence finally deciding we're just not worth the trouble.
And if we peer even further ahead—say, a thousand years—we've either colonized the cosmos or left behind a planet littered with indestructible plastic forks, cell phones without chargers, and fossilized fast-food wrappers. It’s oddly comforting to think archaeologists of the future might puzzle over what exactly a 'McNugget' was.
So, let's face it, Earth doesn't need us. If humans vanish tomorrow, the planet will calmly continue spinning through space, perhaps relieved to no longer host a species obsessed with selfies and online reviews. Inevitably it will redecorate.
Scientists tell us that our mere existence is a statistical fluke, a cosmic accident that defies all probability. And yet, here we are—building cities, debating pineapple on pizza, and wondering if anything means anything.
But for all our self-importance, Earth has barely noticed us. It has survived asteroid impacts, mass extinctions, and the occasional ice age like an old, tired carpenter brushing off a few wood chips. We, however, are far less resilient. The planet will outlive us, no question—our real challenge is sticking around long enough to enjoy the ride.
Which brings us to a curious problem. For most of history, humans have been incredibly good at showing up. Too good, in fact. We spread across the planet, multiplied like caffeinated rabbits, and generally acted as if the party would never end. But now, something strange is happening. People are… stopping. Birth rates are plummeting, and the great human expansion is grinding to a halt.
Random Curiosities: The S**t I Think About! is the debut publication from author/illustrator Ross Scafidas. Coming in at 154 pages, the book darts around the ponderings of the author Scafidas including their opinions.
As summarised by Scafidas: "this book is a product of that mindset. Each chapter starts with a question or a simple idea that popped into my head—some of them big, some of them small, all of them fascinating in ways you might not expect (to me anyway). And just like my brain, it refuses to stay in one lane." To that end, the reader will expect to encounter a variety of chapter content throughout this book, moving from big questions such as "how will the universe end?", to "the impact of AI on our souls" and even a chapter titled the elusive quest for objectivity".
Scafidas' work refuses to shy away from challenging and controversial topics. Each chapter is headed with an illustration, presumably drawn by the author himself. These illustrations are executed very well and add a pleasing cartoonish touch, similar in design to the artistic style seen in the Fallout video game series. The chapter length is also manageable and the rapid change of topic/theme lends itself to readers who like to pick up a book, read a chapter, and then putting it down again. It is more than manageable for even the most reluctant of readers.
Where Random Curiosities could have been improved is in its tone. Scafidas has come at this book with a fun and jokey tone of voice which sometimes can feel a bit too removed from the content. For example, in the chapter titled "lazy, or just traumatized?" Scafidas opens with "let’s get one thing out of the way: Greeks are not lazy. Unless, of course, you count inventing democracy, philosophy, geometry, medicine, and gyros as slacking off. In which case—guilty as charged. Yet somehow, Greece has ended up with the global reputation of a sun-soaked nation of siesta-loving tax-dodgers lounging on whitewashed rooftops while the rest of Europe foots the bill." While it is possible to see what the author was trying to convey, it reads less like humour and more like the author holds a strong resentment to an entire nation. It's more likely Scafidas meant to be jovial, but in instances like this it probably would have done no harm to remove this section altogether. It doesn't add anything and just feels like dead words taking up space.
Similarly, it could be argued that Random Curiosities would have benefitted from either a) starting as a blog to gain a readership and/or b) being split into multiple books which cornicle the thoughts and research on a specific topic. Why rush to cram so much, from lifestyle to the meaning of life, when it could make for a fun series. One book on curiosities of nature, one on the human condition, one on economics (and so on).
Random Curiosities: The S**t I Think About! is a fun little book and one with a lot of potential, whether the author wishes to expand on it in print or online. At any rate, the artwork is fantastic and something that this reviewer sincerely hopes she gets to see more of in the future.
AEB Reviews