I think you could be right. Our leap into space may have been premature, especially when one considers how much of our own planet remains unexplored and unknown, even to this day. If it truly was an anomaly, I feel doubly grateful to have witnessed it!
Sadly, it seems many people are not even moved by earthbound discoveries. I feel just as excited over the discovery of some previously-unknown sea animal as I do over the discovery of water on planets once thought of as "dead." I suppose a consuming love of learning is what the jaded and bored ones lack, the thing that causes them to fall into such negative attitudes toward space exploration. Perhaps they've become comfortable and snug in the security of empiricism. The technically-minded intellectuals and the science fiction writers who are so derisive about manned missions really ought to know better than that.
They need to remember that science isn't about stating absolute facts and standing by them, like some old disciplinarian chanting out the rules of grammar; it's about holding on to the child's sense of wonder and continuing to ask questions, even when they think they know the answers. It's about never being satisfied with a neat and easy explanation, or one that seems to be exactly what is desired. It's about not settling for a view of the universe that can't be challenged. It seems like a lot of scientists, writers and laymen have forgotten that science is supposed to be an ongoing process, and never a completed work. When they remember this, perhaps we can earn back our collective awe and once again lift our eyes upward with pride and joy at the miracles our kind continuously fashion from our dreams.
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Sadly, it seems many people are not even moved by earthbound discoveries. I feel just as excited over the discovery of some previously-unknown sea animal as I do over the discovery of water on planets once thought of as "dead." I suppose a consuming love of learning is what the jaded and bored ones lack, the thing that causes them to fall into such negative attitudes toward space exploration. Perhaps they've become comfortable and snug in the security of empiricism. The technically-minded intellectuals and the science fiction writers who are so derisive about manned missions really ought to know better than that.
They need to remember that science isn't about stating absolute facts and standing by them, like some old disciplinarian chanting out the rules of grammar; it's about holding on to the child's sense of wonder and continuing to ask questions, even when they think they know the answers. It's about never being satisfied with a neat and easy explanation, or one that seems to be exactly what is desired. It's about not settling for a view of the universe that can't be challenged. It seems like a lot of scientists, writers and laymen have forgotten that science is supposed to be an ongoing process, and never a completed work. When they remember this, perhaps we can earn back our collective awe and once again lift our eyes upward with pride and joy at the miracles our kind continuously fashion from our dreams.