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OUR CURIOSITIES INDEX PAGE! |
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After
having boned up on a mathematical theorem, a student who
was attending geometry courses under the tuition of the
famous mathematician Euclid asked the teacher, "Sir,
what will I earn by learning all these things?". On
hearing this Euclid called his assistant and told him sarcastically
to, "give the boy 3 coins, as he wants to make money
from what he learns".
The search for knowledge - without
looking for profits or immediate returns - is a characteristic
of superior animals, and it is in human beings that this
is most marked. We could say the extraordinary curiosity
of humans makes us a unique species! What motivates man in
his curiosity? If at the dawn of mankind curiosity combined
with a rapid apprenticeship was a synonym of life (surviving),
it is no longer the case today. Nevertheless, man is more
inquisitive now than he was in the past. Today newspapers,
reviews, radio, television, internet are all unending sources
of information flooding into our homes day and night to satisfy
our hunger to know things, to learn, to be informed... to
such an extent that the supply of information becomes unmanageable
and so the gathering of information requires a "creaming
off", i.e. the filtering of good and useful information
and the separation of the wheat from the chaff.
Some scientists regard curiosity as what motivates our exploration
behavior, including playing. I'd like to add that curiosity is a measurement
of the "mental tonus", and is an antidote against stereotypes,
overdeveloped self-satisfaction, and boredom. Everything can be source of knowledge;
facts or things which seem worthless, inefficient, useless, absurd, odd, paradoxical
or false may be instructive. Remember that America was discovered by the Europeans
because Columbus made a navigational error!
To conclude, do you know who said: "I am neither especially
clever, nor especially gifted. I am only very, very curious"? No? The
inventor of the theory of the relativity, Albert Einstein, a big kid!
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Archimedes'
Souvenirs
More Info |
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| Edible
geometry |
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  Discover
how pasta is
related to geometry and learn to recognize every
pasta type |
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| Visual
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 What's
a Droodle?
A droodle is a doodle riddle... |
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 Texts in
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you to download! |
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| Heraclitus |
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 Heraclitus,
the Father of the Doctrine of Flux and the Unity
of Opposites... |
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| For
puzzlers |
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 Archimedes:
an interactive paper journal devoted to entertaining & involving
its readers with puzzles... |
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| No
in America |
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 The
word NO!
has played and will play a vital role in shaping
the American consciousness... |
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| Oneiric
labyrinth |
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 Enter
the labyrinth of
your unconscious self from which you can't escape! |
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| Undecrypted |
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 Voynich
manuscript, a "Guide" written
in a bizarre alphabet, in an unknown language,
at an unknown date and place! |
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| Numberopedia |
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 What's
special about this
number? Visit the Zoo of the numbers! |
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| Language
curiosities |
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 Investigate
the mysterious world of Language |
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| Press & awards |
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 What
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Eccentricities