[经典批改讨论] issue119 求拍 [复制链接]

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发表于 2007-6-20 02:32:18 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

issue119：When research priorities are being set for science, education, or any other area, the most important question to consider is: How many people's lives will be improved if the results are successful?

As our time and energy are both limited, it seems necessary for us to fix a schedule before we commence to achieve our aims. In the realm of science, technology, education, and many more others, researchers have to decide what job should be accomplished first. The question, however, is often proven too hard for a single researcher to find the answer, since the research and the consequence of it may bring more effects than a single person can imagine. As far as I am concerned, the best research schedule should be set according to both the potential benefits and the potential damages.

As the breakthroughs in various areas being made, we can measure the importance of them by inspecting how many people's lives have been or will be improved by the results. Most people agree that the most significant invention of last century is computer. People come to this conclusion because computer has largely transformed our lives and has made our work more efficient than ever before. As a result of the innovation of computer and the Internet also, the contemporary world is knitted in a web of information, and people all around the world can exchange ideas with each other using instant communications in the cyberspace. Computer is respected as one of the most wonderful inventions through the history, not due to its astonishing speed of calculation or its astounding space for storation, but due to its great impacts on people's lives and works. Other inventions, for example the nuclear weapon, do not receive the same kudos because they cannot bring us such great advantages but even troubles and bales. It seems convenient for us to decide the research priorities by this criterion.

Nevertheless, can we really predict the value of a research in this way? Unfortunately, it is hardly possible. Only if we could foresee things centuries after, could we correctly judge the potential number of people who will be benefited. Take the history of science development for example, when Rontgen accidentally discovered the X-ray, he and other people might only treat the new invention as something interesting and funny, since the new variety of light can go through different obstacles. Years later, however, people finally find X-ray's crucial role in the field of physic for it can help doctors to understand our diseases. Today, every one of us is clear about the profits X-ray has brought, but when the discovery was at its inchoate days or even before the discovery was made, could we probably predict its usage in our hospitals? If Rontgen set his research priority in the way discussed above, it is likely that the discovery of X-ray will date to a rather late period, or even today we would not know about a light which can penetrate into our bodies. Thus, the problem of deciding our schedule is more difficult than we have thought of.

To measure the importance of a research, we must also take into consideration the possible troubles that the research and the results may cause. The research of cloning, one of the frontier subjects nowadays, is so controversial that the scientists alone cannot decide whether or not they should continue their work. Hesitations are made upon cloning research, as the results might mean catastrophe to the whole human race. Before we carefully consider from every perspectives, both technological and social, any further research on cloning will probably raise endless disputes and polemics. Before carrying on certain research, scientists and not only scientists should evaluate the possible benefits and possible damages caused
by the results.

The solution to "To do or not to do" and "Which should be done first", the two hardest questions for not only the researchers but everyone, might have to wait a while. We have to remember that it is impossible for us to form a clear image of the aftermath before anything is done. This fact, however, will never impede our marching on the road to success, since throughout the history, our fathers and grandfathers never wait until the consequences are clear before they find determinations in their hearts and minds to unravel the difficulties.

[ 本帖最后由 iq28 于 2007-6-23 13:01 编辑 ]

[经典批改讨论] issue119 求拍 [复制链接]

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