“We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the
world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the
sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an
Earth that would otherwise send us spinning off into space, or to the
atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally
depend. Except for children (who don’t know enough not to ask the
important questions), few of us spend much time wondering why nature is
the way it is; where the cosmos came from, or whether it is always
here; if time will one day flow backward and effects precede causes; or
whether there are ultimate limits to what humans can know.”
-Carl Sagan from an introduction to A Brief History of Time By Stephen Hawking
After
hearing and reading your peer's reactions during class about the listed
quotation, what new insight can you add to this quotation analysis?
Please respond. (Blog Response Due By Thursday, August 22nd at 3:40p.m.)
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33 comments:
People may not ask questions about the universe because they are too busy with their own lives and it may not seem relevant. Children are more curious and they seek answers to a world they don't understand and want to learn about it. Children have more freedom in their thoughts while the stress of the world tends to overwhelm people as they get older.
This shows how much we take for granted every day. We are having machines do everything for us now, from cleaning our clothes and dishes to our homework. It raises the question, Is this hurting or helping our generation? It gives us more time and time is money right? But if we get machines to do everything for us our kids won't know the real meaning of hard work. In conclusion, machines and their efficiency are just making us lazier without having to worry or questions anything.
I feel that this quote says that we conform to society as we get older and accept what we see in front of us as the truth and don't go any further into why or how. Some people just assume that we don't know the answer and who are they to ask a question if there is not an answer. Little kids haven't been mortified into society as adults have, they still ask questions. Little kids are in awe of the world around them and still want to know more.
I think this quote represents a large portion of the people of the world however, I think that there is still a part of society that doesn't just trust everyone and has questions like this. I think people should start questioning more things about life, but I think that a majority of the time they are too afraid to question things because of the response or possible backlash and as a kid you don't have those fears or anxieties.
-Nick B
Children are naturally more inquisitive and curious because everything is new and exciting. As we get older we become more desensitized to world around us. Also as we get older we take on more responsibilities and the daily stress of life changes our perception of the world. We get set in our patterns of behavior in ways of thinking and are less open to learning new ideas.
This quote reminds me of the Truman Show. As a society, we will accept the reality that we are presented with because we don't know any differently. Kids don't have as much experience dealing with the world around them, so they question it. They are searching for a meaning or trying to understand and learn. As we grow up, we have our own unnecessary stresses of life (like getting a certain grade), so we forget about the gravity holding us to the planet.
I feel that this quote points out the sad truth that as we grow older we no longer question things and rather accept what we are told is true. I honestly believe that we as a community should start to question our daily lives as we may look back one day and have regrets on what we could have known. After years of not questioning the world around us, I think that the "need" for answers dissipates and we just accept the present as it is.
I feel like this Quote is representative of how tunnel visioned our society has become. Everyday we go with the flow and follow our routines. As we grow older we have more responsibilities and thus we have less time to ask these questions. But, because younger kids don't really have responsibilities they have more time to ask more questions, like the ones said in the poem.
I feel that this quote shows how little of our vast world we actually care about. We go through life not caring about many things because they don't affect us, but if we cared we would know so much more and could do so many more things. It also shows our curiosity weakens as we grow older because we get used to doing the same things everyday.
This quote shows how unaware humanity is. when we are a kid we are fascinated by everything and that's ultimately the reason for us asking so many questions.but when we grow up we become so use to our surroundings that we don't bother to think twice about them rather we ignore them.
This quote shows how many people grow up and accept the world they're presented with and don't question things that don't make sense. Most people lose curiosity as they grow up because they do the same thing everyday. The need for answers doesn't become a need anymore because we think we've got all the answers when we grow up.
I feel that this quote points out that many of us today go about without taking any interest of the world around us. We go through life not wondering why different things happen because they just aren't important to our day to day lives. As we get older we're so focused on ourselves and our lives that we don't think to ask questions these questions anymore as we've become so accustomed to our world that it doesn't spark our curiosity anymore.
I think this quote says how as we get older we're more complacent and and less thoughtful about the world. I think it's encouraging everybody to take a step back and question their daily lives, it seems like if more adults questioned more things, human intelligence has a greater chance of increasing.
This quote seems to be explaining how most of us grow up without questioning anything about the world around us. We live our lived accepting ideas and concepts without questioning them. Most of the things that we grow up hearing from others about the world and how it works are things that people have just told us but no one ever questions what they are being told.
The education system teaches us not to ask many questions about what we do. We are taught to believe that with logic we can answer most of the questions we have about the world. Little kids don't yet rely so heavily on this logic for their answers, so they ask any question that comes to their mind about the outside world.
I think this quote shows that we go upon our lives and don't realize the things that really but us there, like trees and how they give us oxygen... we never care to think about how we are breathing etc. It gives us time to think about everything and realize how lucky we are.
I feel like people stop questioning when they get comfortable. If you think about it, even teenagers don't ask many questions, much less adults. Many people do not think that they need to ask questions because many of them feel like they don't need to. They get comfortable with life and fall into a flow of life that they can not get out of. If people want to learn and start asking questions, we need to snap out of that way of life.
The insight that I can relate to is that we go about our day and not be thinking about what the sun is doing or what the moon is going to do tonight or during the day. We don’t think about the gravity that is pulling us throughout the day. We know that the moon, the sun, and the gravity will do its thing when the time is right. There is lots of things that we don’t know about. When we think about the questions it isn’t necessarily that we don’t need to know, there is a right time that we can gain that information to the interesting things that we want to know.
So many things in our world are taken for granted. Very few people stop to question reality and think about what is actually happening around them. I think children ask a lot of questions because they haven't been influenced as much by the public. As we get older, we learn about things in school and then stop questioning things in our lives. As long as no major changes occur, most people are content to live their lives in a state of ignorance.
most people are stuck in a 9-5 job and don't care about the things that make most of what they have and most of what is happening in the world and don't take anything to appreciate and understand what makes our world work.
As children, everything is new. We are not familiar with anything around us, or inside as, or about us. We are naive and curious, because we do care about how things function. We care to demystify. We care to familiarize ourselves, and once we do, our questions cease. We are no longer curious because we have provided reasonings for why things are the way that they are, regardless of whether it is correct or not. We become complacent and busy as we age. It is a conscious action to be philosophical and to truly ponder again. It is not that we are ignorant, it is that we are preoccupied with surviving, more so than we are preoccupied with existentialism. x
The ancient greeks work is woven throughout the new world almost everything is powered by its achievements. The Greeks strived for perfection more than what other countries were doing.
People still head back to were it started for them.
Charles marks thinks that greece is the place were humankind started.
Today people often become consumed in their own thoughts and lives, no longer questioning the world around them. As we grow older, we lose the curiosity that had once driven us to explore and learn. People no longer take action and instead react to the world around them. During the time spent in school, children begin to learn to think a certain way, condition to be afraid of being wrong. Adults become annoyed when continually asked, "why?" and as a result learn not to ask questions. People take things for granted, not taking the time to learn how the world or machines work. Our world has become full of distractions.
In todays world the "norm" (if you will) is always to except or guess never to question or look for the answer, it's sad how in todays world how blind we can be to the answers that lie right in front of our face and how we take things for granted all the time.
The quote states that people stay ignorant t the world and the science around them to just live day to day. People ignore the true greatness around them and keep on socializing without a second thought of what is making just that happen. We do not question the things that make us work and help us live unless we are in a a secluded room, with a secluded mindset for the thinking of just that. Not fully thinking about one's surroundings is the basic human default. The human psyche deliberately distracts from the truth, that we all know b/c of basic science, and continues to DELIBERATELY live ignorante. This could also tie back to the idea of Greek Mythology b/c humans would rather make up stories about nature above thinking and finding a logical explanation therefore making the made up stories the logic.
People get too caught up in their daily lives not thinking about how much of a coincidence it is that they are alive. All of our cells work perfectly in order for us to be able to do and have everything we do. The Greeks use their Gods to explain these things in order for it to make sense to them.
I think that people think too much about what they are doing day-to-day and don't think about the little things. Also, people can choose to look at the small things if they want too.
I feel that this quote shows the importance of understanding our world. Some people grow up without knowing anything about our life and it is the sad truth of our existence. Some chose not to care why we live and why we do or they don’t care to find out about the truth and our presence in the world.
I think that people spend to much time doing their day to day routines and don't take time to ask questions like that. Older people also have outgrown the curiosity stage and it is normal to not think about it. Small children are still curious about things and want to know things.
People who have grown up or who are older have already learned about gravity and the fundamentals of it. Our brains are more developed so instead of asking 'why?' to everything we know are content with our learning. Socrates wanted everyone (even older people) to continue to ask why to everything and not just concept of it but we have become comfortable with our basic knowledge, asking why doesn't seem as important. We are so caught up in learning quadratic equations that we don't have time to truly break down light refraction and why the sky is blue.
Our day goes on and we don't understand most the time if Gravity was gone how would we get around and how it may effect. This is because some people learn at a young age what everything is and others don't. The people who learn later o=in life usually remember it and this effects them because they could just start thinking about what ifs. The what ifs could range from what if Oxygen just stoped or what if Gravity went away or what if the oceans raised.
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