Feynman, Watson, Sagan…
In the end, it is curiosity that creates victory.
Not only great scientists
But a humanity without curiosity cannot survive.
Yet, Korean society right now
Ignores the values of curiosity and passion,
Filled only with the pretense of those chasing fame.
It will be difficult to find hope if this continues.

Two truths about the Nobel Prize. First, no matter how great the achievement, the dead cannot receive it. Second, those who build achievements for the purpose of winning the Nobel Prize find it difficult to even approach the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

James Watson, who discovered the double helix structure of DNA and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, described in his autobiography as if he had engaged in fierce competition to win the Nobel Prize. However, looking at the life of Francis Crick, who won the Nobel Prize alongside him and devoted his life to molecular biology research, opening new doors in neuroscience, Watson's recollections appear to be a kind of dramatic exaggeration.

The day after Crick passed away, a photo of the lab he had worked in until the day before was released, and the global scientific community felt a deep emotional impact. This was because there were research papers and pens neatly placed on the desk, bearing traces of notes from the day before. True scientists do not abandon their curiosity even until the moment before death. The last confession of the great astronomer Carl Sagan, who faced the end saying, “Don’t ask me to believe in God. I just want to know more about this universe,” carries the same sentiment.

Richard Feynman, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his outstanding work in quantum electrodynamics, had the same attitude toward awards. In an interview, he stated, “I have already received my award. I discovered something. And it makes me happy to see people using my discovery. This is real; the honor of the Nobel Prize is merely unrealistic.” Curiosity is their essence.

Not only scientists. As a result, people from various fields who have made outstanding achievements all start from curiosity and continue to live their daily lives with curiosity. Look at the interview conducted just days before writer Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in Literature. “I think I have always been someone who constantly considers what it means to be human, and what it means to live. I have wanted to address those dilemmas through different types of novels each time.”

Of course, such great intellectuals may be the ultimate embodiments of curiosity, and one might argue that they are too far removed from ordinary people like us. However, curiosity is not a trait exclusive to special individuals. In sapiens, unlike other species, babies are born in a very immature state. As humans started to walk upright, the birth canal of women narrowed, so they could not carry the fetus for long periods inside. Thus, humanity evolved a lifestyle of giving birth to babies with soft brains and fragile bodies quickly and then nurturing them for an extended time. Consequently, there was a need for a switch that would enable them to develop reasoning abilities, language skills, social intelligence, etc., needed to navigate the harsh world outside the safety of the womb at an early age (though evolution does not happen just because it is necessary).

Curiosity acts as a switch that triggers curiosity about the numerous stimuli in the world outside the womb. This switch transforms learning into pleasure. If this were absent or malfunctioning, leading to learning becoming dull, humanity would have become a non-surviving species. Many parents must have felt proud of their child's questions like, “Mom, Dad, why is this?” yet at some point felt the urge to silence their child. Curiosity is innate and was the secret weapon that made sapiens a very special species. But where has all that curiosity gone?

In the International Student Assessment (PISA), supervised by the OECD, which evaluates the reading, math, and science abilities of 15-year-old students worldwide every three years, Korean students typically rank within the top five in the world in terms of scores. However, there are two areas where they almost always rank near the bottom. “Do you find math and science interesting?” (Interest) and “How do you think you will use math and science?” (Value). More shockingly, while the percentage of Finnish students with similar scores studying for more than 60 hours a week is 4%, ours is 23% (2017). In other words, our children are the students who study the longest and achieve high scores while believing that those studies are neither fun nor useful.

In fact, it is not solely a problem for children. Among the ten Korean adults who finally produced a Nobel laureate in Literature, a staggering six did not read a single book in a year. This is an unbelievable statistic for a country known for its high educational fervor. We are currently living in a society devoid of curiosity. A society where intrinsic motivation of curiosity has vanished easily shifts to one overly dependent on external outcomes such as jobs, ranks, family background, connections, rewards, and appearance. In such a society, the modest daily lives of those pursuing passion driven by curiosity are belittled, while the pretensions of those acting to flaunt their accomplishments abound. This is a thought that arose while observing the trajectory of the small ball launched by Mr. Myung-tae.