Genetics and the Drive for Exploration

What drives humans to seek and discover the previously unknown? Does the wanderlust that so many of us share in common have a scientific explanation? 

Science journalist Alex Hutchinson is the author of The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, as well as the book Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. His work focuses on expanding our understanding of human performance, particularly in relation to fitness, sports, and outdoor activities. 

Alex and Greg delve into what it means to have the “Explorer’s Gene,” the evolutionary benefits of seeking novelty, and the psychological aspects of exploring, including the balance between the impulse to explore and the necessity to exploit known resources.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

Why is defining exploration so tricky?

33:56: What do you mean by exploring? Well, on one extreme, it can be like, well, if you are the first person to do this ever, then you are exploring. And that is a very narrow definition that not many of us will ever satisfy. The other definition is like, hey, I am changing the channel on TV and therefore I am exploring the airwaves. And that is also not very meaningful. Then, like, everything we do is exploring.

So, somewhere in the middle, there is a definition that I think is useful. And part of that definition, I think, is that it is—you know, a meaningful form of exploration inevitably involves some struggle. It involves the risk of failure. It does not have to be physical struggle, but it involves some risks, some challenge.

Is technology making us passive explorers?

33:02: Technologies make us more passive in our explorations. There is something lost in the quality of our experience, in how much we enjoy it, and then also in how much we learn about the world from those experiences.

Why are we drawn to solving uncertainty?

24:37: The subjective sense that life is good—like the feeling that you are happy and good and satisfied—is a manifestation of the fact that you are reducing uncertainty quickly. That this is like you are learning about the world, things are going well. And so, when we talk about exploring and curiosity, we are looking for opportunities to get this steepest slope that we can surf down, where we are reducing uncertainty quickly.

Why a changing world demands exploration

18:56: If the world was stationary—in the bandit literature, they talk about stationary bandits and restless bandits. So, stationary bandits are like, if the slot machine pays off 62% of the time, it is always going to pay off 62% of the time. If the world was like that, then there might be a case for locking yourself in a closet, or at least some equivalent of, like, you do not need to explore quite so much—let us just figure out a comfortable way of living and let us do that. The problem is, the world never stays stationary. So, what worked yesterday may not work as well today, and almost certainly, eventually there will come a time where it is not working. We have to keep adapting. And so, in these lab areas, you can show that the more restless the world—the greater the changes in the reward functions around you—the more valuable exploration is.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

• Daniel Ellsberg 
• John Maynard Keynes 
• Bernard Suits 
• Mark Miller 
• “Your Brain on GPS” by Alex Hutchinson | The Globe and Mail 
• Mindwandering: How Your Constant Mental Drift Can Improve Your Mood and Boost Your Creativity by Moshe Bar

Guest Profile:

• Professional Website
• Professional Profile on LinkedIn
• Author Page at Outside Magazine

Guest Work:

• The Explorer's Gene: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map
• Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance