The Lost Art of Wondering

October 2024

Civilizations rise and fall. Their assent is characterized by hard work,

innovation, teamwork, leadership, and perhaps most of all, wonder. Wonder is

a great motivator, it stretches the mind forward and propels a person or a

group of people to ponder ideas that challenge conventional thinking. Wonder

produces inquiry; it is the engine that runs on possibilities and promotes green

light thinking. When there are problems to solve and things to figure out,

experts alone have only so much to o

er. Free thinkers, motivated by wonder

and curiosity, often find new solutions not grasped by “specialists”. It can be

the di

erence between start up companies and established ones; wonder

breeds innovation and without it, stagnation can occur. The innate inquisitive

mind of man finds its expression in research, design, experimentation and

production. Whole societies can benefit from one person’s wonder, Edison and

Bell being two examples.

But civilizations also fall. The engine of wonder that once drove nations to

innovate can decline and become resistant to new ideas. When societies

stagnate, falling victim to a national mind funk, the continuance of their

standard of living is in peril. Could this happen to America?

Is our nation's brain power accelerating with the same velocity it once had or

are we slowing to a comfortable pace, a national cruise control prioritizing

maintenance over initiative? True, American ingenuity remains strong in the

digital age, but will coming generations have the capacity to wonder at a

sustainable level? If necessity is the mother of invention, what happens when

necessity loses its urgency, replaced by ease and convenience? A “can do”

spirit works well for a young nation on the rise, but sustainability is not

automatic and without steady brain power, societies lose their steam.

Enter the Internet, the very invention birthed by wonder. It has connected the

world and spawned amazing innovation. Will this marvel of technology

continue its creative climb or does it carry with it repercussions not fully

grasped today? In short, what’s the cost?

The global tech explosion has fostered limitless wonder surrounding artificial

intelligence. However, it comes with a price that users can easily overlook. The

Internet draws us into a level of engagement and dependency that demands

our full attention to the exclusion of alternative sources, including even our

own cognition. This unintended consequence has the ability to steal our

wonder without our knowledge; that’s power.

A significant percentage of Americans have grown up never having known life

without the Internet. Today, 97% of all people on the earth under thirty years

old access the Internet through their cell phones. Their intuitive response for

all desired information is to access online services. The quest for facts, data,

communication, and entertainment begins with their phones. Their

God-designed call to wonder is bypassed to the degree that their Internet

device has become not a secondary support, but their primary”go to”. It has

become a first response to satisfy the need for input. This phenomenon of

“cognitive outsourcing” means that individuals come to rely on external

systems of thought rather than their own internal cognition.

For those that recall life before the Internet, their wondering and pondering

still precedes their downloading. Online searches for many older Americans

are secondary and a support to their own internal thought process. They think

first and download second. Sadly, these map readers and mental math thinkers

are a dying breed, they are no match for Siri and Alexa. Once search engines

like Google claim their dominance in the theatre of the mind, even simple

questions are self checked as people question their own mental confidence

compared to external “expertise”.

Does it matter who does the thinking? If Google has all the answers and can

deliver them in a millisecond, why not be rescued from the mental fatigue of

brain e

ort? Remember dictionaries and encyclopedias? Like wonder, they

require e

ort. Why not be spared?

It does matter. Wonder is what makes us distinct from the animals and if we

lose our concentration and reflection, we not only lose our humanity, we are

ripe for takeover. When modern man becomes more tech-reliant than

self-reliant, and our nation becomes populated with button pushers, what

then? Research shows that our brains have enough elasticity to rewire from

sustained creative thought to basic words and images that require minimum

concentration. If we don’t think, will we lose the ability to think?

What about the people of God? Internet services are not just convenient, they

have become necessary to function in the marketplace. Without the right app

or QR code, access to services is increasingly limited. Is there a way to enjoy the

convenience of the Internet without being held captive to it?

Meditating on the Word of God is an essential step because scripture brings to

us the core issues of life and God’s perspective on them. Reading more than

watching is another way of taking care of your brain; reading activates the

imagination and the imagination coupled with wonder is the foundation of

creativity. As simple as it sounds, talking with others beyond trivial

conversations is good mental exercise. Words inspire.

In the Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow longed for a brain. Today, a growing

number of Americans are longing for something else - a substitute provider

that can ease their mental workload and give them quick answers. Our

forefathers gave us an amazing standard of living through hard work, strong

leadership, a free market, and the genius of creativity. There was nothing

artificial about their intelligence, it was fueled by wonder.