This a thousand times this. People out here have no curiosity about how the world works. Or they don't until you hit them with the view through a telescope, or a random conversation about how atoms work and they then ask you "How does that work?" One of the big things that I miss about living in California is how people were interested in things. Not always a good thing to be (UFOs, antivaxx etc) but at lest there was something there that they went on their own and researched. Maybe this is why I hang out on the internet more than outside.What it really comes down to though, I think, is a loss of curiosity and wonder. Children are great at this: "why is the sky blue?," but something seems to get lost as people grow older. If people kept this curiosity and coupled it with critical thinking skills and the ability to evaluate evidence and accept the fitting conclusions then we'd be much better off.