Thoughts

Introduction In the first two posts of Spatium Novum, I began by asking what remains to explore when traditional frontiers—scientific, geographic, conceptual—seem mapped or saturated. That led naturally to a second question: how do we orient ourselves internally when the world no longer provides a clear external direction? I explored goal-making not as a matter of setting destinations, but as a recursive, uncertain process embedded in perception, identity, and context. But as I pushed deeper, a more foundational question emerged: ...

Introduction: When Exploration Requires a Destination In my last post, I embraced the metaphor of exploration—not of lands or oceans, but of models, ideas, and intellectual frontiers. I wrote that the realm of thought still offers vast space to map. But exploration, even metaphorical, carries a hidden assumption: that we’re going somewhere. Maps, by definition, imply destinations. And destinations imply goals. That, already, is a curious twist. Before we talk about how to explore—or how to live meaningfully, or how to do science or build a life—we might ask a more basic question: how do we choose where we’re trying to go? ...

The Drive to Explore As the young Truman, I, too, once felt a powerful desire echoing through me: “I’d like to be an explorer, like the Great Magellan!” I was filled with enthusiasm—convinced the world was still brimming with mysteries waiting to be uncovered. But as I grew older, I had to confront a more sobering thought: maybe I was born too late. Maybe, as Truman is told, “there’s really nothing left to explore.” The physical world—at least the surface of it—seemed mapped, measured, and monetized. ...