Understanding Curiosity
From Zanecorpwiki
Deep curiosity is a rarity and most curiosity is concerned primarily with immediate gratification, what we might call local curiosity. Deep curiosity results in exploration and invention while local curiosity results in tinkering.ref group=notesSee http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/WhyAntiInt.htm for where I came by the starting point for these terms and a basis for saying deep curiosity is a rarity. Note, I dislike the author's use of the term's 'adult curiosity'. We wouldn't say 'adult running' to distinguish it from toddling. Professional curiosity would probably be more appropriate, though that's not spot on either an amateur may be fully curious in the way the author intends. In any case, 'adult curiosity' put the reader on the defensive necessarily and is a term which seems rooted in the author's own bias more than it's utility. I'm going with the term deep curiosity./ref
Tinkering is to exploration as evolution is to revolution. Tinkering is about moving along a continuum whereas exploration is unsettling. Tinkering is fairly safe whereas exploration is dangerous.
At it's heart, the majority that tinker and whose curiosity is of a generally local nature are intellectual conservatives. This is good, because if we as a species were not conservative, we probably would not be around today, our parent's having all died off in some grand adventure. Grand adventure is of course referred to as utter folly when it fails, as is often the case.
The minority of explorers and inventors whose intellectual nature is typified by skepticism. Skepticism is a difficult state to live in because it is inherently unsettling. The more skeptical one is, the more difficult it is to find a firm foundation of belief. Every mind seeks a bedrock upon which to settle itself. Even the arch skeptic clings to the scientific theory, in a way make skepticism itself bedrock. This is a particularly elegant solution for it is in a way self-deriving and self-sustaining. For the skeptic, the scientific method manifests the aseity which theology has long attributed to the gods. (it's foundational?)
I'm using the term inventor here in a narrower sense than normal. Most inventions are the result of tinkering. Invention in this sense means the creation of something seemingly wholly new, usually incorporating ideas antithetical to the mainstream. The car was the result of tinkering. All the parts and science for the car existed prior to the car itself, they were just put together to make a car. Indeed, the Model T was even less tinkering than that for the car already existed, Ford just tweaked the production process slightly. It was still genius.
Relativity was exploration.
Notes
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