Wonder
Wonder
Ricki Tarr @RickiTarr@beige.party
There is this strange idea, that if we understand the facts or science behind how something works, we will lose our sense of wonder. But this has never felt true for me, understanding prisms doesn't take away the beauty of a rainbow, understanding evolution doesn't negate the miracle of our existence. The Universe is a magical place, and the more I learn, the more my wonder deepens.
I have a friend who’s an artist and has sometimes taken a view which I don’t agree with very well. He’ll hold up a flower and say “look how beautiful it is,” and I’ll agree.
Then he says “I as an artist can see how beautiful this is but you as a scientist take this all apart and it becomes a dull thing,” and I think that he’s kind of nutty. First of all, the beauty that he sees is available to other people and to me too, I believe. Although I may not be quite as refined aesthetically as he is … I can appreciate the beauty of a flower.
At the same time, I see much more about the flower than he sees. I could imagine the cells in there, the complicated actions inside, which also have a beauty. I mean it’s not just beauty at this dimension, at one centimeter; there’s also beauty at smaller dimensions, the inner structure, also the processes.
The fact that the colors in the flower evolved in order to attract insects to pollinate it is interesting; it means that insects can see the color. It adds a question: does this aesthetic sense also exist in the lower forms? Why is it aesthetic? All kinds of interesting questions which the science knowledge only adds to the excitement, the mystery and the awe of a flower. It only adds. I don’t understand how it subtracts.
-Richard Feynman
44It only subtracts for those with less knowledge, to many of those people are content with being ignorant. And for the ignorant, there’s nothing they enjoy more than overcompensating and trying to drag others down to their level.
13As someone who went to art school, a fairly common view that artists have is that they have a unique view of the world and can see it in a way others cannot. Maybe that's true, but then the thinking goes that the way others see the world is inferior, and I think there's nothing further from the truth than that. Everyone sees beauty in different ways.
9Too many artists perceived the world in us vs them terms. Art or science. Too this I say: da Vinci. He considered himself an engineer, not an artist but married both in a fascinating way.
(Educated in fine arts myself, but damn if I don't love science, logic and even a good snippet of code every now and then)
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Heck, science has shown that some flowers are even more dramatically colored outside our visible spectrum!
6
This is the thing I find so disappointing about theists and spiritual people.
I once had a long conversation with a spiritist and they were convinced you could talk to the dead. What struck me wasn’t the fact that they genuinely believed this to be true it was their certainty that no other explanation was conceivable.
Their wonder about the universe was diminished because they had ‘the answer’. It was solved.
I still don’t know the answers to the big questions but I’m not scared of that fact, I’m excited by the opportunity to find the answers. I’m still able to wonder.
16also like, having the answers lets us do cool shit like create lasers, or space telescopes that let us photograph the most absurdly beautiful creations of nature.
Even if it was true that knowing how it works made it less wonderous, it also allows for new wonders, so at worst it evens out in the end.
6What you're describing isn't "theists," but fundamentalists. Plenty of theists don't talk to the dead, know that Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and modern astronomy would look quite different were it not for the catholic church.
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Agreed! Knowledge does not take away wonder, while ignorance can breed fear.
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