Neil deGrasse Tyson: Who Wrote Checks
on Wednesday, November 28, 2018Neil deGrasse Tyson Money Quote saying the money provided to explorers is most often seeking profitable outcomes. Neil deGrasse Tyson said:
“The history of exploration has never been driven by exploration. But Columbus himself was a discoverer. So was Magellan. But the people who wrote checks were not. They had other motivations” — Neil deGrasse Tyson
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In this quote, Neil deGrasse Tyson seems to be making a distinction between explorers and discoverers versus those who financially support their voyages of exploration. Some key points:
- He asserts that the actual “history of exploration” is not primarily motivated by a spirit of discovery itself.
- Tyson acknowledges figures like Columbus and Magellan were true explorers and discoverers who undertook journeys of exploration out of a sense of adventure and curiosity.
- However, he notes the “people who wrote checks” to fund these expeditions, while enabling the voyages, were not explorers or discoverers themselves and had “other motivations” for supporting the missions.
- Tyson implies the financial backers were likely more motivated by potential for trade routes, territorial expansion or natural resource acquisition rather than the quest for knowledge itself.
Overall, the quote conveys Tyson’s perspective that while famous explorers had intrinsic motivations to discover and chart new lands, the entities providing funds that made these voyages possible generally did so to pursue other strategic or economic goals, not exploration as an end in itself.