issue120 【today is the day】第十一次作业 by revealing

revealingUID: 2507748

TOPIC: ISSUE120 - "So much is new and complex today that looking back for an understanding of the past provides little guidance for living in the present."

Does the past which seems relatively old and simple have no value today? Does looking back provide little guidance for living in the present? Obviously, people will find it almost impossible to come to an agreement on the highly controversial issue due to their different experiences as well as conflicting values. In the last analysis, I am more inclined to oppose the title of the statement.

To begin with, looking back for an understanding of history can provide us some vital creativity and inspiration. The history, especially the history of science, is replete with such examples that scientists achieved crucial originality from the past and gained great achievement eventually. Helmholtz's experience is a case in point. Helmholtz was a German physicist who had great interest in history of music. Once, he knew about an ancient musical instrument which could damp the loudness of sound. That instrument inspirited him the invention of a similar equipment to damp noises in gas turbine. The equipment is the prototype of resonator today and this significant discovery advanced a new subject-thermal acoustics. Perhaps the example is too old and too simple to please a lot of people, however, there is something profound in, and something which we should pay attention to. After all, even the famous scientist Isaac Newton once conceded:”If I can see a bit farther than some others, it is because I am standing on the shoulders of giants.” The past and the present are not significantly different; instead, they are similar to some extent so we can draw analogical deductions. If no past, there is no present at all.

In addition, what is also worth noticing is that our past is a road map which instructs us the right direction. Francis Bacon, famous British philosopher, once said (and I paragraph):"histories make men wise." We can learn important experiences as well as lessons from looking back for an understanding of the past, and can avoid repeating the same mistakes. For example, we learn the past about the tragedy of Challenger to prevent other serious accidents; we learn the past about the cruel slavery in ancient Rome and Greece to establish a better society; we learn the past about the two World War to pursue peace and love today; we learn the past about the Prohibition in the 1930s in the United States to better resolve such problems as speech freedom; and so on. What happened in the past should not be ignored, and histories provide great guidance for our living in the present.

Nonetheless, just as a famous saying goes, "going too far is as bad as not going far enough." If we spend too much time and energy on looking back, there will be counteractive results. As the advent of information era, we are submerged into the information ocean at an unceasing speed. It is unfortunate but true, that the amount of information past and present is infinite while the time and energy of a person is limited. Therefore, we should learn how to choose more useful and more helpful information of the past. It is impossible and no need to understand all information of the past.

To sum up, there are several other aspects relevant to the issue under discussion, which, unfortunately, I have no time to explore in detail here. In my view of points above, looking back and understanding the past can be useful and helpful. However, restricted by time and energy, we should call for a balance between exploring the present and learning the past.