Thursday, October 30, 2014
Exploration is Advancement and Survival
As human beings, we have an innate curiosity for the unusual. This isn't something that is randomly a part of us, but it is actually a survival mechanism. By being curious, people find out if something new is dangerous, good, or a benefit to our lives. Soon, after exploration, these new curiosities become old and familiar, and they either become rejected or assimilated into our lives. Humans are very fickle. In terms of physical survival, humans are at a great disadvantage. We do not have fur to cover our bodies nor do we even have a good method for traveling. Our bipedalism is not up to par with a four legged creatures. We do have something that can help us however, and that is our minds. For humans exploration and curiosity are essential for our survival because that is all we really have. I think that the greatest example of using our minds is fire. Before seeing the applications that were potentially useful to humans, people saw it as dangerous and fascinating. Soon, it was found that heating food made eating healthier and people could survive in very harsh climates. Fire essentially allowed our species to expand all over the planet; without it, many would freeze to death, especially during the ice ages. This is much like space travel, as we learn more and more we are able to travel further into the void. Who knows what the future may look like? We might actually be living on other planets in the not too distant future. With that, we have moved from necessity to luxury. We do not have the world we have today without our curiosity. Yes, it might be innate, but it has propelled us to new ways of life and as a result it is ever changing.
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This might be interesting for the conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbdMMI6ty0o
ReplyDeleteI really like how you made curiosity into a defense mechanism for human beings. I never really thought about it like this until I read your post. We have to use our minds and our knowledge to get us through basically every situation that we are encountered with. Without that curiosity, we would never move forward in anything that would be stuck with the same type of lives every day. The last sentence you said, "...as a result it is ever changing." I could not agree more with this statement. We need to have these types of thoughts to move forward and progress on so many different levels. This was extremely interesting and opened my eyes to new ways of thinking. I might even say it got me curious about reading more into defense mechanisms and curiosity and that relationship.
ReplyDeleteSamuel,
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was very interesting. I really liked how you made curiosity into a defense mechanism as well. What you said about the fire, I never really thought about it that way until I read your post. You are right though, if we didn't have fire, most people would freeze to death, especially in the cold areas. Come to think of it, our curiosity really does do wonders for us. It does lead us to some interesting things. If we didn't have curiosity, where would we be today?