I've always been a big fan of astronomy and space exploration.
I owe this interest to Carl Sagan, who fuelled much of my childhood imagination with his wisdom and ease of communicating science. It was this influence that made me follow most of the news about planetary and space exploration.
The Ingenuity mission, a kind of helicopter that explored the surface of Mars, was the first of its kind to be carried out by humanity. Like others, I've been a keen observer and even more enthusiastic since NASA decided to publicise the news about the missions via social media.
Now that this flying machine's mission has come to an end, the feeling is that you're saying goodbye to a kind of friend, as if it had a conscience or a familiar-sounding voice.
In essence, these machines fulfil the function of the ancient human explorers, from whom those who remained said a sad farewell, while they waited in anticipation for their return, and with it the reports of new and wonderful discoveries.
However, like many of those explorers, Ingenuity won't be returning home, which doesn't mean that the mission has failed.
On the contrary, this was yet another victory for the intelligence, imagination and creative power of the human species. A few millennia from now, future archaeologists will be amazed when they discover what remains of Ingenuity, using the same intelligence and creativity that enabled us to develop this fantastic machine.
Thinking about the end of Ingenuity's mission made me think about the importance of creativity, the great human superpower.
"It is not the eyes that see, but what is seen through the eyes," said Plato.
Whenever I read Plato's “Allegory of the Cave” in The Republic, I think about the power of human creativity and the influence it has on the development of individuals and societies.
The ability to dream and be creative is innate and not exclusive to the human species. Perhaps it's because it's so natural that we don't even realise that it's a superpower that allows us to abstract from reality and travel in an imagined way, for example, into the future.
Remember the science fiction series from the 70s and 80s, where the characters communicated with each other instantly, sometimes thousands of kilometres away, via small mobile devices?
It was something that seemed unreal and unattainable.
Nowadays it's no longer fiction and there are, for example, mobile phones, devices that allow us to communicate and have access to the world, which have become commonplace and which we all use.
Note that everything that exists had to be imagined first.
In order to do this, the superpower of creativity was used, which is also an instrument of happiness and well-being that allows us, for example, to laugh at a joke or make interpretations about the beautiful and the good.
That's why creativity can also be an instrument of unity and social cohesion. It's amazing how many times we unite, even if we don't know the people involved, around common projects, as for example happened on man's first trip to the moon.
Creativity and the ability to dream can be applied in any context, and says a lot about the development and emotional stability of any person, especially when it comes to a child, for example.
Does he want to be an astronaut, a policeman, a fireman or a footballer? Or is he so stifled in his ability to imagine that he reacts to these questions with a shrug?
When children play, they build imaginary worlds that are their own. That's what adults do when they develop a new idea, for example.
Creativity is the best and most effective catalyst for human development. That's why children should be educated creatively, so that they become adults capable of dreaming and making appropriate use of the knowledge they acquire.
As Fernando Pessoa said, "Man has a dream, the work is born".
When we use creativity, we can travel back in time through our imagination. It was this ability that allowed us to leave the caves. To prevent us from going back there, we need to give children and adults back the greatness of dreaming, playing and being creative.
But are we doing it?
I'll end with the words of Emily Dickinson:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.”
I would LOVE to see an archeologist who finds this probe, perhaps appropriately buried under cumulative layers of sand. Maybe it'll be installed in the Martian equivalent of the Smithsonian ( my late father got lost in there once & was there until it closed. The one in Washington ).
What a lovely tribute - to humanity, to creativity, to Ingenuity.