"We're all living in Stone Age right now if Alberto Knox was right..."

What Alberto Knox have stated in chapter 2 by "losing the ability to wonder about the world" suggest that as people grow up, they will stop thinking about how the world works and stop asking questions of life. What he insinuates is that people will only take life as granted and thus live in their cosy world, "nestling deep in the snug softness" and forbid all forms of change. However, that is not at all by the slightest chance true.

The human race is the most intelligent specie within the animal kingdom, if not the universe; we have not wasted this intelligence granted by evolution of our ancestors, but instead, we cherished it and used it well. Where, you say? Just think about what you are doing right now. You are now reading my post that I've just typed in Blogger.com. So how did I do so? Did it occur naturally with a flash of light? No, not at all. I typed it word by word online using a computer. That itself is a bi-product of wonder - technology. If adults took life as granted and did not think of the world and forbid all forms of change, then I seriously doubt why at least computers existed and allowed me to post. Simply speaking, technology comes from wonder, or the strive to improve our lives. We think so that we can live a better life, and we accept this change as the result of this thinking through technology because it makes our life easier. The impact of technology enabled us to reach closer to our own Utopia - the ideal world - as Plato suggested.

Notice how I said 'adults' instead of people in general. The reason behind is that if I quote people in general, it will include children. Although as Socrates suggest that each and everyone has the same common sense, connoting how even children have the same ability to wonder as adults, the fact that children do not know sufficient knowledge means that they will not have the ability to create technology. Why? Because even though they wonder, they cannot put that into a valid reason. It is to the duty of adults, or strictly speaking, scientists and philosophers to solve the puzzles of this enigmatic world. So in effect, people do not lose the ability to wonder as they grow up, but steps ahead further to find solutions of their wonder.

Let us look at airplanes. I doubt that no one asked why we couldn't fly yet birds can when we were young - that is the wonder of children. Now since adults have gained the neccessary knowledge, i.e. they learn about aerodynamics, physics, they think again. With the equipped knowlege they have gained from school, they can now incorporate their wonder and solve it. And that, we now have the wonder of children plus the wonder of an adult - which is innovation built upon knowledge. Ultimately they step further and solve their wonders - that is the invention of airplanes - tributes to the Wright brothers.

Science itself is based on Aristotle and wonder. If Isaac Newton hadn't got that apple fallen on his head when he was studying and if he didn't think about why it fell onto him, the entire field of Newtonian physics would be gone. Perhaps, if that happened to him when he was a child, the new era of physics won't exist either, because he could have too young to have the ability to put his thoughts into logic or he might as well have forgotten it because he can think of it again when he has the necessary skills to put it into logic when he's older.

We don't actually lose the ability to wonder as we grow. Instead, we put wonder into reality.