This is a graph based on genetic data of ancient cultures.
And it essentially correlates the proportion of a single gene or
variation of a single gene, an allele, with the amount of
distance that these tribes migrated in thousands of kilometers.
And what you can see is that this single variation of a single gene correlates with
how far humans traveled in early parts of the history of human culture.
And so this, of course, has been dubbed the explorer gene.
Now, biology is far too complex to reduce human curiosity or
migration to a single genetic component.
But this is fascinating data and implies that curiosity,
exploration, potentially at risk to the human,
because this is dangerous activity, has a genetic component.
You can see that the natural occurrence of this allele in the human population is
about 10%.
And that makes sense.
If this gene was absent, then people would not be driven to explore.
They'd get too comfortable with their situation.
And when circumstances or the environment change,
they would be susceptible to being wiped out or losing their food source.
On the other hand, equally you can imagine that if this explorer gene,
as it's called, was present in half the population or more, then too many people
would be venturing off and taking risks, and the tribe might die and not survive.
So there's a sweet spot here.
This same gene in modern human culture has been correlated with risk seeking
behavior.
This allele is present predominantly in people who jump out of airplanes and
fly parachutes and do hang gliding and various risk taking activities.
And it is also present in people with ADHD, attention deficit disorder.
So some correlations with this allele are considered dysfunctional attributes
of humans.
But the underlying curiosity or restlessness that associates with
this genetic component is I think a basis for our exploration of the planet.