Learning

What exactly is it that we search for as humans? What is it that drives us to find it? Is it nature, nuture, or supernatural? Why do we always find ourselves in quandries without any answers? Philisophy is one method we have come up with the cope with our hopeless situation. Science is another answer to our desperate prayers.But in the end we are left with only questions, on a bright planet in a dark solar system that does not give us answers readily.

What is it that makes us continue to move forward. It's the will to survive. But what makes us seek answers to questions that may take decades to find? It's a peice of the human condition I find fascinating. What is truly amazing is that it is a fact that we cannot stand back and let life pass by us peacefully. It is a fact that we must question it, examine it, take it apart and find it's inner workings. We no longer toil to survive, we toil for the higher purpose of knowledge. The idea of being God excites us and scares at the same time. We want it so badly but are afriad of it.

Nuclear capability is an excellent case study into this fact. We created a power that could provide electricity to millions of homes or could wipe out nations. We still live under the threat of mutually assured destruction between the United States and former Russia. And yet, our thirst for knowledge is not even a little bit satiated. We pursue stem cell research, we pursue cloning, we debate whether these practices warrant acceptable ethics in a so called civilized land.

But I still ask; Why? What is it that we are looking for? Where does our curiousity come from? Will it ever have an end? In 100 years our lives will be antiquated stories taught to children in schools where they are taught knowledge and the thirst for it is created. Perhaps it's unfair to condemn schools as institutions that create the thirst of knowledge. I think it is more basic, that it is something that begins at birth. We are born as clean slates, without knowledge or wisdom, and as we grow we learn that the more we know, the more wisdom we gain, the more ability we have to complete the tasks that we want. When we are very young we want candy from the top shelf of the kitchen cabinet. We stipulate that if we position the drawers in a certain manner they will act as stairs. And as we reach the height of our climb, we look for more answers. We have learned from our childhood toys that you can stack things on top of each other to get higher, or that a stick can be used to push something. We use these tools to accomplish the tasks before us.

And as we get older, we are taught about more capabilities. We are taught about the alphabet, and about numbers and about reading. And on it goes. We are constantly taught new abilities until we can reach the world of capitalism and fend for ourselves. We use our learned abilities to search for more knowledge. To find the cure for a disease, or to find a good argument for a legal case, or to design an IT system that will withstand most common disasters. Each day we create something new, if we are lucky, that pushes mankind an inch closer to it's undeclared goal; to know all and to become like Gods.

And it all starts with a baby's want to walk.