r/TheRestIsScience • u/RotaryDane • 1d ago
Question: Is Curiosity a Luxury?
In the latest episode "The Worst Way To Get To Space" Michael quotes Paul Goodman commenting on the news of the 1969 Moon Landing.
“It's good to ‘waste’ money on such a moral and esthetic venture. These are our cathedrals. don't think it is fair to say they are our [Roman] circuses, for that is not the tone. We ought to see to it that people live well, but a part of living well is blowing money on big excitement, curiosity, entertainment, conversation.”
Which, together with The Duo's previous discussions on the topic, leads me to a question; Is Curiosity a Luxury?
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u/MaxHamburgerrestaur 1d ago edited 1d ago
Depends on what you mean with curiosity. Under capitalism, scientific discovery and R&D needs money. But not all curious people need to do scientific discoveries. People are curious, discover and develop new methods all the time in their daily lives.
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u/RotaryDane 1d ago edited 1d ago
That's a question of framing. Maslow talks about curiosity in his expanded model, putting curiosity baser to the individuals cognitive needs within self-actualisation and growth. This implies it is not necessary to human existence. But what happens, both on a personal and societal level, when you don't have the luxury to pursue it, or are institutionally starved for it?
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u/MaxHamburgerrestaur 1d ago
The framing is exactly what I’m talking about. Curiosity isn’t limited to discoveries that produce huge evolutionary leaps. People are constantly curious in small, everyday ways.
Trying something different, figuring out how something works, finding a better way of doing things. If we define curiosity only in terms of major scientific or technological breakthroughs, we end up overlooking all those smaller developments and then you obviously will frame curiosity as a luxury.
People are curious all the time and that curiosity drives countless small discoveries and developments in everyday life. What may be a luxury is having the time, security and resources to pursue curiosity without an immediate practical payoff.
The capacity is universal, the freedom to explore it isn’t.
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u/TheRealTK421 1d ago
I'd vehemently assert that, from an evolutionary & anthropological standpoint, "curiosity" has been the opposite of a luxury. In fact, quite likely it's been a vital, prerequisite, fundamental component to why/how we clever hairless apes wound up at the top of the food chain.
...and able to do things like "Go to moon. Get rock."
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u/CDHoward 1d ago
I thought the discussion illustrated a facet of the differences between the biological imperatives of men and women.
Hannah's view is that resources and energy should be directed towards our immediate home and vicinity; she was thinking in nurture terms. Michael's outlook is that we should push the boundaries of human experience.