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Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Magellan

Do you remember that all-important question of childhood; "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most of us at one time or another answered, policeman, fireman, superhero, construction worker, astronaut, or something of the like. I probably mentioned all of those at one time or another, but what I really wanted to be was an explorer, like Leif Eriksson, or Magellan, discovering new lands and civilizations and exotic cultures and making friends with them (they only teach the nice version of history in elementary school). And I remember being terribly heartbroken when my parents explained to me that I couldn't be an explorer, because the whole world had already been discovered - there was nothing left to discover.
I cried.
I would have rather known that there was no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy than to be told that there were no more frontiers to discover, no more possibilities of discovering Atlantis, or the Amazons, or El Dorado, or anything else.
There is something seriously wrong with knowing too much. Don't get me wrong, I am a lover of knowledge, and like to absorb far more of it than I will ever have any practical use for, but what I mean is that the world becomes a far less interesting place when there's no more mystery left in it. Isn't there something great about being able to imagine mythical creatures, strange civilizations, and being able to say - they could exist, on some undiscovered continent, somewhere in the world, and the thought that someday you could take a ship where no one has ever been before, and discover something no one living has ever seen before.
I think this is the reason behind the popularity of science fiction. Science fiction is not about a scientific desire to methodically categorize the world, but rather the desire to find that which has not been found, to discover and imagine and find that there are still mysteries beyond our understanding, even if they involve quantum physics instead of lost cities. Science fiction serves to reassure us that there is still enough mystery in the universe that we will never have to worry about using it all up.
I think this desire for the unknown might even be related to my aversion to getting a real job. Once you are a laywer, for example, you can't really still imagine the possibility of being a rock star anymore, or an astronaut, or an accountant. There's something I find truly fearful about the thought of my future becoming predictable and secure. It doesn't necessarily make sense, and yet sometimes not knowing what my future will hold seems to be more important than money or fame or anything else. Or maybe I'm just good at rationalizing my own crappy situation.

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