Facts that Will Make You the Most Interesting Person in The World
...or at least at your next dinner party!
In the process of building Intellect Inbox, I sent a few of the adult learning lessons on to my parents. My dad offered a good suggestion, half in jest, of “what I’d really want is to have a few facts that would make me the most interesting person at our next dinner party.”
And the cool thing about building something, especially with AI, is that you can just kind of do it? Literally five minutes later, we were testing lessons with various prompts to elicit some “super interesting facts” for any topic under the sun.
I wanted to share some of those with you here. For what it’s worth, I have done my best to fact check these and they all do appear somewhere on a semi-reputable site on the internet. Without diving into broader philosophical debates of truthiness, let’s just enjoy some strange facts about reality
I’ve been testing out the History for adults section, hence the strong historical bent to these:
The Great Wall of China
Despite popular belief, the Great Wall of China is not visible from space with the naked eye. This myth has been debunked by astronauts who have orbited the Earth.
The wall is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, some of which are endangered species. It's not just a historical monument but also a sanctuary for biodiversity.
The Great Wall has a tragic side to its history as well. It's estimated that over a million people died during its construction, earning it the grim nickname of the "longest cemetery on Earth."
The Korean War
The Ghost Army: During the Korean War, the U.S. employed a unique unit known as the "Ghost Army," which used inflatable tanks, fake radio transmissions, and sound effects to deceive and mislead North Korean and Chinese forces about the size and location of American troops.
An Unfinished War: The Korean War is often referred to as "The Forgotten War" in the U.S., overshadowed by World War II and the Vietnam War. However, it's also an unfinished war. The armistice signed in 1953 was only a ceasefire, not a peace treaty, meaning North and South Korea are technically still at war.
The Most Decorated Unit: The Puerto Rican 65th Infantry Regiment, known as "The Borinqueneers," became the most decorated unit in the Korean War. They earned a Presidential Unit Citation, a Meritorious Unit Commendation, and two Republic of Korea Unit Citations for their bravery and service.
The Space Race
The first animal in space was not Laika, the dog, but fruit flies. The United States sent them aboard a V-2 rocket in 1947 to study radiation exposure at high altitudes.
The Apollo 11 astronauts had to sign customs forms upon returning to Earth. They declared "Moon rock and Moon dust samples" as items brought back.
The computer that guided the Apollo missions to the Moon had less processing power than a modern-day calculator or smartphone.
During the Apollo 11 mission, a felt-tip pen saved the day. After a circuit breaker crucial for the ascent broke off, Buzz Aldrin used a pen to activate it, ensuring their safe return to Earth.
As an unofficial history buff, I knew a handful of these but was floored by a few of them! The “felt-tip pen saves moon landing” sounds really fake, but you can read about it on ABC News.
While there are pitfalls with AIs and how they handle topics that are particularly controversial or subject to human interpretation, they have become quite good (particularly GPT4 which we use for creating Intellect Inbox) in handling and recalling statements things that are more factual in nature or just not subject to controversy (fake moon landing jokes aside).
That all said, go give Intellect Inbox a try if you found these facts interesting and want AI-curated educational content delivered right to you (it’s free)!