SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA (MarketWatch) – Yes, test your inner Sherlock. Elementary my dear brain. Our brains love challenges, solving problems, puzzles, mysteries, figuring out scams, frauds. We’re fascinated. We love being tricked. Focuses you. Your inner Sherlock fires up, goes into action. How’d that happen? Why? You need to figure it out.

Admit it, the unknown turns you on. The brain’s a computer preprogramed to solve problems, must solve them. Synapses firing, thrills, we chase them like Nascar racers, hunting them, on Vegas tables, betting on stocks, Google searches, watching TV’s “Sherlock” and “Elementary.” Yes, very entertaining, but much more ... our inner Sherlock needs the action.

Get it? Humans need, seek out, thrive on the action. Makes your heart race. Says you’re alive. Why do we love puzzles, magic, tricks, even frauds, hoaxes, unexplained mysteries? All problems to solve, stuff to figure out, to exercise our god-giving powers, look beyond the moment, into the unknown, the future?

But why? Basic human psychology, good ol’ neuroscience. Mental workouts. We need ways to make life exciting. We need them, makes us feel alive. Well below we have 10 unsolved mysteries challenging America. So test yourself, exercise your inner Sherlock. Find the best solution for America.

Are conspiracy theorists lunatics? No, we’re just solving problems!

Scientific American got the heart racing by focusing on this human need, asking the big question: “Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?” Why fall for them? What make us “believe” in something? Yes, our brains do love solving puzzles, murder mysteries, hoaxes, con games, frauds. The reason: Because all self-deceptions are a search for “simple explanations for complex societal events that restore a sense of control and predictability.”

This is new: In Timothy Melley’s 2000 book, “The Empire of Conspiracy,” we learn that until recently, scientists and psychologists thought such beliefs were “the implausible visions of a lunatic fringe, paranoid and delusional.” In fact, a “2013 national poll reports that 37% of Americans believe that global warming is a hoax ... 21% think that the U.S. government is covering up evidence of alien existence ... 28% believe a secret elite power with a globalist agenda is conspiring to rule the world.”

Then, Scientific American added, the new research provides “eye-opening insights and potential explanations.” If you read about another government “coverup” or a biased poll, you ask; Was it manipulated? Today it makes sense to be skeptical. A “scientific” poll with ginned up data, a hoax playing with your mind ... remember, our brains love solving puzzles, love magic, a clever conspiracy ... we seek out mysteries to explain, figure out, solve, exercise our god-giving power to see beyond today, into mysteries of the unknown.

But these 10 big mysteries still aren’t solved ... can you figure out why?

Some social scientists say if you believe in one theory you tend to believe in others. Maybe it’s a rejection of science. A political ideology. Or strong religious convictions. All OK. We occasionally do write about a subtle conspiracy of an elite oligarchy controlling “Doomsday Capitalism,” undermining America’s future. Trust your brain, they’re your beliefs.

But the best explanation is the simplest, a psychological one, says Scientific American. There is no “sinister plot,” just our basic human need to explain “feelings of powerlessness and uncertainty.” Those theories help “people make sense of the world by providing simple explanations for complex societal events, restoring a sense of control and predictability.”

Still, some big mysteries remain unsolved or partially resolved. Here are 10 of the most suspicious, most frustrating, costly. And humans, especially investors, have trouble even admitting to them, let alone solving them. Ask yourself which mysteries need solutions:

1. Capitalism guarantees free-market competition ... or kills democracy?

Why is democracy dying? Yes, the illusion lives on in our history books, the rhetoric of politicians, manipulating the minds of 95 million investors. The propaganda machine works. But the democracy we fought and died for since 1776 is fading. The Super Rich own America. Forget the 537 politicians we elected to Washington. Puppets for a Super Rich elite that control through their lobbyists. Can we solve it?

2. Perpetual growth means a strong economy ... or undermines GDP?

Jeremy Grantham, founder of $100 billion GMO warns: After a century of 3.4% prosperity, America’s GDP dropped “by over 1.5% from its peak in the 1960s to nearly 1% from the average of the last 30 years,” as inequality increased. Worse, “going forward, GDP growth for the U.S. is likely to be about only 1.4% a year.” To less than 1% for America by 2100. Can America reverse the trend?

3. Optimism creates your American dream ... or your worst enemy?

Wall Street lost over $10 trillion betting on dot-coms, then subprimes. “During every bubble, investors truncate historical data to build a model that shows them exactly what they want to see: low risk and big returns,” says Motley Fool’s Morgan Housel. Yes, “when you want to believe something, you’ll do what is necessary to convince yourself that it’s true. Like ignoring historical data that gets in the way.” Is your brain misleading you?

4. Enough oil for 200 years ... or will the world burn out in 50 years?

The world has “1.4 trillion barrels of oil, enough to last at least 200 years,” says Big Oil. Plus “2.7 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas, to last 120 years ... 486 billion tons of coal, more than 450 years.” Two hundred years of oil. Too bad it’s toxic, will kill us in 50 years. “We have five times as much oil and coal and gas on the books as climate scientists think is safe to burn,” says environmentalist Bill McKibben in Rolling Stone. But who’s right?

5. Global warming solutions will work ... or we lack political will?

Global warming has a $60 trillion price tag. But to do the job, the political will to act is missing. Why? Psychologically most Americans are closet capitalists. When we choose between our wallet today and saving the environment for tomorrow, behavioral scientists see a brain biased to short-term self-interests. We’re capitalists today, environmentalists tomorrow. But later will be too late. What builds political will?

6. Silicon Valley innovations will save us ... or too little, too late?

Silicon Valley’s in a no-win battle against six fatal headwinds, cultural, political and ideological trends hard-wired in America’s brain. Can our innovations save us from becoming a second-rate superpower in a no-growth economy? Optimists say yes. Economist Robert Gordon says no, in his challenging NBER report, “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?” Silicon Valley can’t innovate fast enough to solve the real big problems. Can anyone?

7. Wall Street stock advice makes everyone richer ... or the top 1%?

Vanguard’s Jack Bogle is the father of low-cost index funds, says “investors earn a net return, after all of the costs,” and “just as gambling in a casino is a zero-sum game before the croupiers rake in their share,” and a loser’s game thereafter. So beating the stock and bond markets is a zero-sum game before costs, a loser’s game thereafter.” The house always wins, raking off as much as a third of your money. Why let them?

8. Behavioral economics makes us more rational ... or even dumber?

Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman won the 2002 Nobel Prize in economics for exposing Wall Street’s myth of the “rational investor.” Today it’s worse, neuroeconomists are on Wall Street’s payroll. As University of Chicago Prof. Richard Thaler said in his classic, “Advances in Behavioral Finance II:” Wall Street “needs investors who are irrational, woefully uninformed ... willing to hold overpriced assets.” Wall Street is a money machine for insiders, does not want rational, informed investors, keeps us in the dark. Why not stop?

9. Financial literacy programs help Main Street ... or only Wall Street?

Wall Street loves financial-literacy programs, they can manipulate content, brainwashing you. Doesn’t work for 90% of Americans, a loser’s game. Your brain is not rational, you can’t rewire or reprogram it. But Wall Street can, using your irrational side against you, siphoning off over a hundred billion annually from 95 million Americans. Why not resist?

10. The next generation will be better off ... or have they given up?

Time warns: “You’re not the New Greatest Generation. Millennials aren’t trying to take over the establishment, they’re growing up without one.” Nobody trusts anybody. Old men rule, trapped in the last century. Lack moral leadership, no trust, capitalism making matters worse. You’re inheriting a huge mess, yet in denial, disengaged. Everything old-guy rulers do is handicapping your future. Why not get back in the game? Wake up?

Can you see the bigger picture connecting all 10? The one solution that fixes all 10?