下周二考试啊~刚写了Issue226，感觉挺难的很烂的，狂求拍+打分...

给飞的回忆UID: 2793438

TOPIC: ISSUE226 - "People are mistaken when they assume that the problems they confront are more complex and challenging than the problems faced by their predecessors. This illusion is eventually dispelled with increased knowledge and experience."
WORDS: 664
TIME: 00:41:21
DATE: 2010/4/8 0:54:04

Is it true that we are actually confronting with more complex and challenging problems than our predecessors did? Can knowledge and experience ultimately dispel this illusion, as the speaker claims? Fundamentally, I disagree with the assertaion, by virtue of the evident facts in several aspects.

First of all , there is no point to deny that increasing knowledge and experience seem to have the knack of pealing away all the images and focus on the core value. Consider, for example, after learning history, we realize that we are actually facing
some enduring social problems which are similar with those social problems a generation ago, for the reason that almost all the social problems are stem from humanity.
A more striking example involve the science research. At the very beginning of human history, human beings were fighting a losing battle with unpredictable natural forces. Yet, with the improvement of science and technology, we are able to explain most of natural phenomenon scientifically. In short, without knowledge an experience, we will become naive and simple. In the process of human civilization, knowledge and experience assisted us to understand the world around us better. Consequently, with increasing knowledge and experience, the problems we are confronting today will be solved faster and better because of the increasing knowledge and experience.

However,
does the increasing knowledge and experience really provide us better solution to current problems? Perhaps no.
Actually, as far as I have concerned, the diverse problems in modern society are totally different with the problems several generations ago. Therefore, it is hard to compare them and conclude which one is more challenging.
It is widely acknowledged that in a society that develops as quickly as ours, knowledge and experience do not play a pivotal role as they do in the traditional societies. Instead, innovation and creativity have become two basic elements of the development of the whole society. Because of the dramatic evolution of the world, we are actually facing new problems every single minute. The dramatic change of the world call for innovation and creativity, which cannot be obtained from existed knowledge and experience. Consider, for example, Bill Gates entered Harvard University in 1973 and dropped out from Harvard two years later in order to start the engine of Microsoft Corporation with Allen. It is mainly because Bill Gates realized that the value of knowledge and experience might pale in comparison to the value of the dramatic evolution of technology. In that case, increasing knowledge and experience might not assist us to solve the current problems.

Essential as creativity and innovations are, we have to admit that in some fields of inquiry, like science , it is knowledge and experience that lead us to find the final solution to the current problems.
We can never ignore the magnificent contribution made by notable figures in the past, upon whose shoulder our society stands today. There is no denying fact that in the science research area,
a lot of researches are predicated on the existed researches or theories conducted by great scientists in the past, as the example of astronomy illustrates. Without Kepler's theory, astronomy would not have made a gigantic stride. Similarly, without Einstein's relativity, physical researches could hardly have reached a new stage because the existed concept of time and space restrained visual angles of physicists. To sum up, the effective of knowledge and experience in some areas like science will never be overestimated.

In my opinion, considering this issue, we should define current problems on a case-by-case basis.
We are actually facing some problems which are totally different from the problems several generations ago. Thus, it is hard to define which one is more challenging. Furthermore, in terms of knowledge and experience, important as knowledge and experience are, they cannot actually help us to solve some current problems in particular fields. Yet, we have to admit that in some fields like science, we depend upon knowledge and experience to promote the research in those particular areas.