on wonder

I thought it was interesting in today's reading about discovery and wonder when Daston mentions "the insatiable human appetite for the rare, the novel, and the strange" (23). And while the chapter was supposed to be about the ways in which that appetite manifested itself during that specific time period, I couldn't help but wonder why that was. For one, I can think of the evolutionary argument--it makes sense that if you have the cognitive capacity, it could be beneficial to figure out how to tame fire, develop and use simple machines, et cetera. But is there a specific argument that could be drawn from this book as to why we're curious and inclined to seek out wonder?