good morning Hank it's Friday so one of
the things that interest me about our
species is our inclination toward like
discovery and exploration even though
there were many species of humans before
us and some that coexisted with us we
were the only species to spread across
the entire globe and we did that despite
the fact that many of Earth's habitats
are not particularly hospitable to our
biology also exploration comes with a
high risk of you know like death and yet
still we did it we engaged in this
exploration across times and across
cultures and we continue to do it I
expect to live to see the first person
step foot on Mars in one way getting
humans to another planet will obviously
be an astonishing accomplishment but in
another way it will be the obvious
continuation of what we've been up to
the last 250,000 years okay this video
is gonna feature two side notes nd here
is the first one in the United States we
have an election next Tuesday November
6th it is a very important election and
you should vote in it if you're eligible
and to get ready to vote I highly
recommend ballot ready org it allows you
to research every candidate and
referendum on your ballot it is really
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get ready to vote and if you're
concerned that you might not vote call
or text a friend and say hey make sure
that I vote on Tuesday please vote it
matters okay back to the video but there
is also more than one kind of
exploration right like there's the kind
where you sail off into the ocean of the
great unknown with nothing but hope
there's also the kind where you explore
your existing world in ways that haven't
been attempted yet ways that might even
seem counterintuitive this is how humans
have discovered all kinds of things from
important things like the
counterintuitive fact that injecting
yourself with a weakened form of a virus
can protect you against that virus too
lovely but unimportant stuff like the
counterintuitive fact that in football
you score more goals with four or three
defenders than with one or two that kind
of explorative learning is so wonderful
to me I love it that humans figure stuff
out share it and then verify the
information and then pass it on like
that is the human story or the best of
it anyway
second side note hey did you know that
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right Hank you can celebrate pizza mess
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right now at dftba.com sidenote to the
site note Hank do you ever find yourself
accidentally watching linear television
only to discover that there are a
minutes of advertisements for every 22
minutes of content if vlogbrothers were
a TV show there would be three 30-second
commercials in every single video ok
back to the show
there's another kind of exploration I
love that does not like send us to Mars
or discover vaccines which is weird
exploration for no reason except that it
is beautiful like we don't know why
these paintings were created by people
25,000 years ago or what was meant to be
communicated by the artwork on this
Grecian urn but at least in part it was
probably people trying to make something
beautiful and I find that so encouraging
all of which brings me at long last to
the title of this video Hank yesterday
you sent me an article about a panda
person who has spent thousands of hours
picking flowers in World of Warcraft and
refusing to engage in battles or even to
pick a side in them I'm not given over
to hyperbole but that is the best thing
I have ever heard of it also reminds me
of kurt j mac sputum project Far Lands
or bust in which for the last 7 and 1/2
years a Minecraft user has been walking
in one direction with his dog there
walking toward the edge of the Minecraft
universe known as the Far Lands but they
are many years away from getting their
links to both these projects in the
doobly-doo below by the way so I know a
lot of people think endeavors like these
are just huge wastes of time but I do
not agree I think playing with in real
or virtual worlds in new and strange and
beautiful ways is valuable because it
inspires oneself and others to think
differently about those worlds and also
because time spent trying to do or make
something beautiful never feels wasted
to me in a related story I will be back
playing video games as a pacifist in the
near future over at Hank games but
before that Hank I will see you on
Monday