This section takes a look back at the origins of the Wunderkammer, the Wonder Cabinet, in an effort to better understand the MJT. It delves into the idea that, when the New World was discovered, there was no telling what lay there, and thusly it gave way to the rise of collections of items and animals from both the New World and other exotic locations outside of Europe. What with a rover on Mars and a whole slew of new information about our solar system and beyond coming in each year (the vast number of habitable planets, as a good example), this is something that is highly relevant in our present and future, and highly powerful in our motivation to keep stretching beyond our borders to explore the vastness beyond.
The definition of wonder is explored; that it goes hand in hand with non-understanding, with looking at something and not knowing what it is, as well as the very act of looking, that experiencing the source of wonder personally is an enormous part of understanding what wonder is.
What I find particularly fascinating is the idea that wonder gives way to scientific progress, that it is what pushes the scientist to find out the 'why' behind the astonishment. And coupled with this is Feyman's view of doubt, that it is something to be celebrated and welcomed as the 'essence of knowing'. This gives true legs, in my mind, to Wilson's Cabinet in the modern era: it is important not to forget the power of doubt, the power of bewilderment and awe and wonder. It forces us to re-examine the world, like the man who exits the Museum and re-evaluates a pencil sharpener.
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