 go whenever you're in doubt as to whether the thing on the back of the book jacket is a writer or a bacterium given a human population of six billion people and positing that no more than half of them are published writers that gives us a maximum of three billion writers there are about five non-million bacteria on this planet so the chances of a random life form on the back of the book jacket being a bacterium and not a writer are roughly three six billion to one here summary that anyone can understand in seven words on your mark get set go it's probably a bacterium not a writer