issue138 G-89-互助社-27日 （还有四天考试了，已做初步修改，请各位高手拍砖）

fantasianosUID：207837

Issue138  第49篇 让砖头来得更猛烈些吧！
------摘要------
作者：fantasia     共用时间：45分0秒     588 words
从2005年8月27日13时41分到2005年8月27日14时27分
------题目------
Only through mistakes can there be discovery or progress.
------正文------
As the trend of society and culture fluxes and ebbs with its specific periodicity and yet processes at its accelerating and eternal velocity, more and more people are paying attention to the substance of discovery and progress. How can a person discover? By what way does an item make successful progress? Though the declaration that discovery or progress can only be attained through mistakes seems too arbitrary, it does have merit to a large extent.

Admittedly, what people at times take for granted and as the basis of further development is the knowledge gained from previous experience or success of others as well as themselves, guaranteeing their achievement without much failure. In these sense, what persons really do is merely transforming the facts or lessons to their own tasks in order to fulfill their jobs. Besides, many scientific discoveries are based on opportunities, that is to say the discoverer did not suffer any failure in the very field. For example, the birth of the Continental Drift theory was by chance with its discoverer staring at a piece of map for a period of time and recognizing the similarity of certain continents' coastlines during his episode with sickness.

Despite the instance above, a road completely without mistakes is less likely to lead to discovery or progress than that with some. Generally speaking, though occasionally opportunity and former success may directly contribute to a success, in most cases things do not seem to be so trouble-free, especially in the process of progress. It is the distance of expectation and reality that the disappointing events are attributed to. When assumptions or predictions fall behind the true reality, mistakes occur, and then orient the doer better once more, again and again till the ultimate success is achieved. For example, before Edison finished his invention of electric light, he had done thousands of experiments with diverse materials trying to discover an appropriate one for bulb filament. These mistakes, probably regarded by ordinary people to be free of usage, did make Edison aware of a large scale of materials unable to meet the need and therefore prevent further troubles and puzzles.

Turning back to the "mistake-free success", though at the first glance a person may agree to the notion that this category of success does exist, a closer examination can show an almost opposite fact: except for few items, a genuine discovery or progress can not be free from mistakes. For one thing, opportunities only point out a corner or several corners of a mine, leaving the most valuable treasures for the pursuit of human beings' own effort. Just take the set up of Continental Drift theory for example again. It is correct that the initial creation derived from pure creativity or "God's words", the following steps and the ultimate success should be and really were accomplished by backbreaking and heartbreaking trials as well as errors, ranging from the practical choice of which continental piece is divided from which others to how can the assumption be proved to be true. There is no denying that the flash of creativity makes up merely a little part of the whole iceberg of final theory, with the coming responsibility of proving and applying to reality the authentic and overwhelming task. For another thing, even if the seemingly simplest job is filled with chances of failure--just as the saying "it is the shallow water that makes people drowned". Such items as carelessness, impatience all tend to tantalize individuals with failure. The accident of Challenger spaceship indicated an example. Moreover, it is ironic that some superficially well-off discoveries actually stem from mistakes. Put it factually, Columbus’s discovery of America was the result of his confusion of the new island of India.

As a conclusion, it is mainly through mistakes that discovery or progress is attained, though the quality of "only" is too absolute because of a limited few exception. Though failure may lead to disappointment usually, the function of it could never be doubted, and humans should never keep themselves together with mistakes outside the door of progress.