Perseverance and Curiosity

IN February 2021, NASA successfully landed the space rover Perseverance onto the surface of Mars. This was a significant step forward as a human race, and also an inevitable milestone because humans are innately curious beings. Common sense suggests that our desire to explore can only be a result of boring, uneventful surroundings so does this mean that the Earth is boring and not worth exploring?

Of course the mysteries of the universe beyond Earth have perplexed and occupied the minds of scientists and astronomers for thousands of years. We are always looking for definite answers to satisfy our questions, which is why crazy theories of what the Earth really is have popped up throughout history to satisfy our minds - you’ve probably heard of them - the Earth is flat, the Earth floats in a giant pool of water like a log, and even the Earth is a short cylinder.

As a child, I read that in Hindu mythology, Earth was supported by four elephants standing on a turtle’s back. It’s fascinating how different cultures have these different responses to this question. But what’s curious is that this “World Turtle” has shown up independently in the mythologies of China and Native Americans as well.

This is a seperate question in itself - how come they all eventually come to the same conclusion? Each culture has its own exotic nuances but there is something that ties Earth-bound civilisations together, and that’s our attributes - intelligence, creativity, perseverance and curiosity. In his 1974 anthropological journal article, scholar Jay Miller identifies that the turtle reflects aspects that the Hindu, Chinese and Native American people value in their culture: perseverance and longevity. Turtles and tortoises are known for being famously long-lived, which gives off a wise and ancient quality. We were able to make judgements on things beyond survival - “hey look, it’s an animal which would be neat to use as symbolism for our depiction of the world”. No other species has the luxury to think of such a fantastical scenario.

So even though we are separated by thousands of kilometres of land, our ancestors have looked towards animals for inspiration and symbolism. Now we’re are looking into interstellar space. Perseverance’s primary mission was to search for signs of past and present life. Remember last September when two radio telescopes found plentiful amounts of phosphine in the clouds of Venus?

Overnight, Venus’ atmosphere grasped the media’s attention - a potential floating microbial bio-sphere. Of course, this was during pandemic time, so news had its shock value doubled. Everyone hopes that Venus has life, although it’s unlikely given the 500◦C surface temperature and carbon dioxide atmosphere. The discovery of extraterrestrial life would change us forever. Will they be carbon-based life forms like us? How are we going to communicate with them and who’s going to do it?

Our biology will probably make it impossible to recreate the sounds of alien languages, but the aptly named Perseverance rover reflects one of humanity’s best attributes for such a task. We’ve endured millennia of natural and man-made disasters, learned how basic hygiene can extend lives, and now we’re trying our best to overcome the coronavirus pandemic. It may seem insane to say “this is normal”... but it really is. What happens if all the world’s challenges, mysteries and secrets are solved? Earth becomes stagnant, and prolonged life meaningless. And we are reaching a point where this may be the case.

It’s 2021, and human culture is reaching a steep gradient of growth. The exponential function. Starts off slow, then really really takes off. Population, education, economy, culture and science. It was a fourteen year-old, Alexander Mather, who got to name the latest rover after winning an essay contest. He said, “We as humans evolved as creatures who could learn to adapt to any situation, no matter how harsh. We are a species of explorers, and we will meet many setbacks on the way to Mars. However, we can persevere.” With our ability to persevere through the hardest situations, and the accumulation of knowledge, we are ready to physically unpack the biggest mystery ever presented to the human race - are we alone?

It’s time to extend beyond Earth, where we’ve lived for millions of years. It’s time to invest in space exploration. Over the years, writers, composers, artists and intellectuals have argued that Earth is an exotic planet and we are unique beings, but it’s hard to draw that conclusion as the only sample of biological life, and an insignificant sample at that, compared to the trillions of planets out there.

Luckily, we have another attribute up our sleeve to keep us motivated. Another prominent rover that landed nine years prior to Perseverance was Curiosity. Said by the same Alexander Mather, “[the] names of past Mars rovers are qualities we possess as humans. We are always curious, and seek opportunity.” The Einstein cliché: curiosity should permeate our minds.

Nothing can be uninteresting to a curious mind, but remember intelligence follows exponential growth as well. This is described by the “Flynn Affect” (named after US educator James Flynn), where IQ increases as improvements in health, education, technology and working conditions im- prove. People need more intellectual stimulation, and the top minds already solve the world’s problems. There is a stunning idleness in schools to nurture this growth.

In Norway, a study from the Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research revealed that men born before 1975 had a positive Flynn effect of a three point gain for each successive decade. However, those born after 1975 had a steady decline in IQ. Current education systems trap students within syllabus outcomes that only allow them to see the world through a certain lens.

But now that we have reached a turning point in societal growth and knowledge accumulation, it’s time to explore.