Curiosity (not a robot)

In German class we have sometimes this exercise where you should say if an adjective is positive or negative. Given that the class is full of Iranians, Argentinians and Spanish engineers. This leads generally to a pleasant conversation. This kind of conversation that starts “in my country…” or in this case “ in meinem Land…”.

In meinem Land, for instance, curiosity is considered something positive. Curiosity is what motivates people to finish a PhD and discover a cure for cancer. Theoretically. It is also what motivates people to research if chimpanzees are able to recognize each other looking at pictures of their anuses. It might be that curiosity leads to the discovery of electricity, but it also leads people to mix mentos with coke, baileys with orange juice and keep Camembert in vinegar. Personally, I would not let the kind of people that plays that way with food anywhere near chemicals.

I agree, curiosity can be the driver to a successful career. But in short term it most likely will make you drive to a urology ER.

If you think about it, curiosity was behind your most idiotic actions. Out of curiosity I have eaten locusts. Out of curiosity, I want to believe, my son eats dirt from the floor. Out of curiosity and not jealousy, I read my husband’s mail whenever I get the chance. For the same reason I watched, like many other idiots, the insufferable second season of Downtown Abbey… and the absurd third, fourth, fifth and sixth from Lost. Out of curiosity I had to watch the unbearable joke that is Avatar and lost my faith in humanity, or at least in script writers.

Talking about films. If we learnt something out of horror movies is that curiosity killed a decent number of blond teenagers.

Curiosity… Today the idea came to me, from a purely scientifical, hypothetical point of view, what would happen if we try this little experiment once more? Would we get another clone from Martin, proving the comparative strength of Czech DNA? Would he like autos, or would he get obsessed with Playmobil?

Of course I rejected these thoughts as I would reject the idea to scrub chilies in my pubis… out of curiosity