Only two weeks to go before the big departure from Fécamp for South America. The crew and the scientific teams are getting ready somewhat feverishly and I’m being asked from all sides – not only by journalists – what on earth there could still be left to discover on this planet in this rather blasé 21st century. But anyway, it sounds like a great adventure, they say. It seems to have been forgotten that our mission this time is about sustainable development, biodiversity, global warming and other such issues … As far as I’m concerned, this definitely includes an element of exploration as well as adventure. But in order to clarify this question, here is an article I wrote three years ago for the magazine “Grands Reportages”; I feel that it is just as pertinent today.

Rather than simply agreeing with the misconceptions of our time, I feel it is better to clarify the differences between the terms adventure and exploration. Although any form of exploration inherently has an element of adventure, adventure does not necessarily include an element of exploration. Exploration involves discovering the world, whilst adventure implies transforming one’s life. The explorer is seeking knowledge that is acquired through adventure; the adventurer is seeking a way of surpassing the limits of existence.

Of course there are links, often subtle, between adventure and exploration, which is why adventure can serve as a remarkable tool for acquiring knowledge. But you cannot use these terms interchangeably without losing sight of what you are trying to understand. However, there is an explorer-adventurer prototype, a learned and balanced combination of science and existence that falls between the two realms

A NEW SCALE

With regard to the evolution of exploration over the last three decades, one thing is certain: the discovery of the world is not yet complete, despite a widely held belief to the contrary. Of course, the exploration of the vast terrae incognitae of times gone by has come to an end, but the closing of this chapter in exploration has opened up a new chapter in contemporary exploration, that of the search for the knowledge of details in numerous scientific disciplines such as botany, speleology, archaeology, entomology and oceanography. A vast amount of work has been accomplished in these fields and in many others, often by the “small fry” in exploration who, bit by bit, have amassed enormous amounts of “minor knowledge”: the discovery of plant varieties, maps of little known sea beds, the excavation of pottery or important tools in various excavation sites. Everything and anything can be found in the Prévert-style inventory of these new acquisitions. And much remains to be done in the future. This is why dozens of field expeditions covering all continents and all oceans will be needed before we can even begin to consider the possibility that our planet had revealed all its secrets. The notion of exploration therefore holds the same meaning as it has during the past thirty years, but has simply changed in scale. For that matter, there will come a time, though not in our lifetimes, when this scale will change once again, this time to gigantic proportions, when human exploration of space begins for real. Viendra d’ailleurs un temps, que nous ne verrons pas, où cette échelle se modifiera à nouveau, vers le gigantisme cette fois, lorsque débutera pour de bon l’exploration humaine de l’espace.
In addition to this shift in scale, there will be a need – and this need is already apparent – to periodically rediscover entire sections of the planet, given its constant evolution as a result of the rapid transformations of the modern world. We are therefore a long way from being able to dispense with the peculiar profession of the explorer, which entails the constant urge to go off and enquire into the limits of the world beyond the known. Of course, these limits continue to narrow – which is why the explorers of the late 20th century were even more tireless in their examination of the transience of things than the discoverers of vast lands. But as there have been many explorers who used their imagination to re-examine, in their own way, knowledge that had already been acquired, the spirit of exploration has remained alive and well.
The new approach to exploration in this period could lead one to believe that the adventurous nature of exploration has changed after all. But this is not the case at all. As in times gone by, the actual face-to-face meeting of man with nature has defined the nature of exploration during the past thirty years and has differentiated it from pure science. It has remained a kind of “breathing space” where the search for rational knowledge and the type of intense life that adventure offers can come together. Though the dangers of times gone by are no more, exploration still requires, and will always require, the same human qualities of commitment and resolve in the face of challenge, the same desire for the diverse and the far-away, the same taste for the rough and simple life of expeditions into unknown territories. It still requires the ability to take risks – without which nothing is possible.
As for adventure, it has also evolved in its own way. Because it is, by definition, free from the need to acquire scientific knowledge, it has continued along the same path it was on as Western societies evolved into societies of excess: gratuitousness. Meaning, that “freed” from all forms of supervision, adventure continued to be sufficient unto itself, seeking no justification other than itself. It was this freedom that made modern adventure into a Promethean process, a permanent quest to transform life by constantly surpassing its limits. Let us remember something here: before we modern-day Westerners had the good luck, through the evolution of our history, to live in the protected part of the world, our forefathers were weighed down day after day by the inevitable threat of adventure. For thousands of years they had to survive in an environment of insecurity and shortage. The very idea of revering adventure per se must have been quite foreign to them. That is why one does not always find “adventurers” in the Western sense of the word in developing countries. There, people are still being subjected to adventure.

DEMOCRATIC LIFE

What we call adventure today developed with the sudden emergence of a new phenomenon in our societies: security. Adventure continued to develop in direct proportion to the increase in security, as if it were trying to break free from this security, as if we were not “programmed” for security. A strange metamorphosis, but not in fact a paradoxical one. This development accelerated over the following thirty years, spreading through every strata of society, in very different forms, adapting to all social classes and to all human conditions. This period is characterised essentially by this democratisation of adventure, more so than by the concurrent pursuit of great achievements on land, sea or in the air. The latter were in no way very new or very original. What changed was that it was now possible for each and every person to live his or her own adventure or, at least, to feel that they had the possibility of doing so. From a simple walk to get away from city life, to the tour operator offering a safe thrill-seeking holiday on the other side of the world, to organised tourism or an individual backpacking trip, there is something for everyone and for every need. What a change! Nowadays, the best as well as the worst has become possible.
The evolution of mass culture has turned adventure – and its counterpart, travelling – into a commodity like any other – and these “commodities” have not been spared the bizarre product customisations and mutilations common to any other form of popular culture. Deviations and mutilations have not spared them therefore. Even computer games have been influenced by the change in our perception, providing models of adventure that flirt unashamedly with parody and pretence. It could be said that the market value of adventure’s share price has been dropping continuously. But as everyone still has the right to judge and to choose, there is no immediate hurry. In order to make sense of the jumble of information with which we are faced, all we need to know is how to distinguish the real from the fake. In fact, those we call the “public” have learnt to be discerning.
All in all, the future lies open. As long as adventure and exploration continue to survive, at a basic level at least, our world will remain open to wonder. As for the spirit of adventure – something every person can grasp if he or she so chooses – it remains the surest way for us to create exciting ways of existing in this world, in whichever form it is given to us.