Well fucking said. Smoke noodles rarely have room for curiosity, which is where new things often come from.

Edit: Not sure how smarmy know-it-alls became that, but I'm not changing it now

Some lady told me she read Atlas Shrugged while in the hospital for a long stay, kept alive by equipment she neither invented nor paid for. How oblivious people can be when we are all just barely something more than monkeys? Some of us manage to be passably unoblivious and I think that's what makes us human; the potential to be more rational than a monkey. It's no guarantee, though, as you so noted. You know there was a caveperson who just learned about fire and still went around and acted like he invented it straight up to the caveperson that did invent it. Monkey brain stuff.

I don't need ignorance to feel wonder. I think things are cooler when I can marvel at the complex mechanics behind it all.

That's the thing though, what's amazing about planes really depends on your knowledge base or what experience is specifically being enjoyed. If you don't understand how planes work then the difference is moot because whether seeing or doing the entire thing is magical. If you do understand how planes work you might know that the crazy thing isn't flight, we knew how to do that since approximately 1800 when the first gliders were built, the crazy part was generating enough power to make powered flight possible. If you understand how flight works and are still enjoying the experience of flight is where wonder still exists.

You know the wonder of flight still exists because some number of kids and adults would pick flight as a super power if given the choice.