Hi everyone,
The pictures of Pluto are amazing and all praise to the scientists and engineers who made it possible. Ok....but this raises the question....what is its usefulness? We live in an age of information ..... more and more information without really having any better understanding of the universe and our lives.
I know the usual argument is about crossing frontiers.....'people said the same thing about Columbus and his journey....look how useful it was'.....and so on
Actually, the comparison is not very meaningful considering the nature of the cosmos and natural human limitations. The original motivation for space exploration was about doing better than the Soviet Union and a little later it was about finding other places to colonize if the earth becomes uninhabitable. Now we know that we cannot possibly colonize any other planet in the solar system let alone other exoplanets. We now realize (I hope) that we are rooted to the earth and better look after it well if we want to continue to exist. Moving to other planets and exoplanets is out of the question.
One point is that all information is not necessarily knowledge. By knowledge I mean something that helps us grow intellectually and is also useful to us in our lives. Knowledge should be about forming a big picture view of life in general by adding relevant information wherever necessary.....and our lives should figure in it in some way....IMO. Random information can be more of a clutter.
Secondly, people can get addicted to information. Some people can actually start believing that all information is knowledge and derive pleasure from acquiring such information. Intellectual need is also just a need like hunger, sleep or sex. It is possible to get addicted to the pleasurable sensation we experience when we satisfy these needs. The same thing can happen to the intellectual need also. Many people could begin to think that information is an end in itself...at any cost. This is questionable.
Just some thoughts.
Cheers.
Sriram
