Curious Minds
Di buku Why kemarin, ada satu bab berjudul Curious Minds di mana Mario Livio mewawancara beberapa orang kenalannya yang menurutnya polymath dan highly curious, baik yang melalui jalur akademik maupun autodidak. Mereka adalah matematikawan/fisikawan Freeman Dyson, astronot Story Musgrave, filsuf Noam Chomsky, gitaris/astrofisikawan Brian May, kosmologis Martin Rees, fisikawati dirjen CERN Fabiola Gianotti, Marilyn vos Savant yang konon punya IQ>200, pakar paleontologi John Horner, dan seniman Vik Muniz. Semua diwawancara tentang rasa ingin tahu mereka yang besar.
“Were you always curious? How are you curious?”
1. Freeman Dyson (1923 – 2020) pakar top di bidang fisika dan matematika, mengulik berbagai topik di fisika nuklir, fisika partikel, astrofisika, biologi, bahkan menulis esai dan science fiction.
“I was always asking questions as a child… I was definitely more interested in the details than in the big picture”
“I have a very short attention span. I tend to give up after 2 or 3 weeks. I either solve the problem or altogether leave it.” Kayak Leonardo daVinci ya.
2. Story Musgrave (1935 – ) astronot yang pernah bekerja sama dengan Livio dalam misi perbaikan Hubble Space Telescope. Musgrave ‘koleksi’ gelar akademik di bidang matematik, statistik, kimia, biofisika, sastra, computer programming, bahkan dokter medis. Ia juga pilot pesawat jet, hobi menekuni fotografi dan desain.
“My curiosity is related to a certain restlessness with not being entirely happy with things the way they are. So I always felt that I need to do something. I always had this energy to explore further.”
3. Noam Chomsky (1928 – ) dikenal sebagai pakar linguistik, cognitive scientist, filsuf, komentator politik, aktivis, pemikir dan penulis ratusan buku. Ia salah satu ilmuwan abad 20 yang paling banyak dikutip, dan berpengaruh besar di bidang linguistik, psikologi, AI, logika, ilmu politik, dan teori musik.
Menurut Chomsky, topik yang paling menarik baginya adalah bahasa, karena “kemampuan berbahasa adalah kemampuan istimewa yang hanya dimiliki manusia, inti kemampuan berpikir, dan karenanya sangat misterius.”
4. Brian May (1947 – ) gitaris legendaris band Queen, yang juga menyandang gelar PhD bidang astrofisika dari Imperial College London, sempat jadi rektor Liverpool John Moores University, dan berkolaborasi dalam tim sains proyek misi NASA ke Pluto.
“I don’t think that science and art need to be separate. In some mysterious way they are connected.”
“I am passionate about animal rights, and I’m infinitely curious about human relations, love in particular. Love is one of the most powerfu things in ourlives, yet science has very little to say about love.”
5. Martin Rees (1942 – ) pakar top kosmologi dan astrofisika, pernah memegang beberapa jabatan tertinggi organisasi keilmuan di Inggris seperti Royal Society. Ia juga banyak menulis buku (saya pernah baca 2 bukunya: Just Six Numbers dan From Here to Infinity).
“I’m not sure (I was always curious). I remember having been puzzled by various phenomena. I was also always attracted to numbers.”
“(curious people) generally more intellectually energetic than others. Many of them retain the intellectual playfulness of children — they stay enthusiastic.”
6. Fabiola Gianotti (1960 – ) adalah dirjen CERN (pusat riset nuklir Eropa, tempat Large Hadron Collider). Sejak kecil ketertarikannya ke musik dan sastra, bahkan sempat menyelesaikan kuliah bidang musik, tapi lalu pindah ke fisika.
“I was always a curious child, always had many questions. At one point I decided that physics will actually allow me to try to answer some of those questions.”
“I am even more curious (than when I was a child). I am driven by curiosity and the pleasure of learning. Nothing delights me more than understanding something I didn’t understand before.”
7. Marilyn vos Savant (1946 – ) yang tercatat di Guinness Book of World Records sebagai orang dengan IQ tertinggi (228). “Meskipun skor test IQ nggak bisa diandalkan, tapi kecerdasan Marilyn memang nyata,” kata Livio. Marilyn tidak selesai kuliah, hanya sempat mengecap 2 tahun kuliah di jurusan filsafat, tapi dalam kolom Ask Marilyn yang diasuhnya, ia menjawab berbagai soal matematika dan logika, yang menuntut logical thinking.
“I’ve long been curious about the human mind, the nature of consciousness, the breadth and depth of cognition, and the enigma of infinity.”
8. John ‘Jack’ Horner (1946 – ) pakar palaentologi yang tidak pernah lulus kuliah karena dislexia, namun dianugerahi gelar kehormatan Doctor Honoris Causa karena kepakarannya. Ia juga penerima ‘Genius Grant’ dari MacArthur Foundation, dan konsultan sains film-film Jurrasic Park.
Ia menekuni paleontologi karena disleksia parah, sangat sulit membaca, jadi lebih suka eksplorasi ke luar.
“I think the best kind of science emerges when you follow your personal curiosity rather than following anybody else. Your only goal should be to try to satisfy your curiosity.”
9. Vik Muniz (1961 – ) seniman asal Brazil yang sekarang bermukim di New York. Karya-karyanya penuh detail, menggunakan berbagai material yang tidak biasa. Ia juga pernah bekerja sama dengan para pemulung untuk membuat karya seni dari sampah, didokumentasikan dalam film Waste Land yang memenangkan banyak penghargaan.
“Both scientists and artists are ‘hungry’, they dedicate their lives to the creative tools that will help us find out what is out there.”
“My curiosity is so profound that it’s almost like a sickness…I feel that the seed of creativity is curiosity, and that the potential for imagination comes from wondering.”
Karya Vik Muniz di antaranya bisa dinikmati di stasiun kereta 2nd Avenue di New York City.
Kalau teman-teman bagaimana?
Are you a curious person, what are you curious about, and how are you curious?
