Issue59 求拍

elephantograph

Issue59
32:04

Shouldscientists focus on areas that are likely to benefit the greatest number ofpeople, as the speaker contends? Upon first glance it seems compelling forseveral evident reasons. However, the speaker’s ground is absolute to someextent since there are many other area on which scientists should put equal, ifnot more, focus.

Tobegin with, it is undoubted that scientists’ focusing on the areas that aremore likely to benefit the greater majority is advantageous in severalcompelling reasons. First, given the limited resources, the money allocated bygovernment and other scientific organizations will accordingly be more inclinedto areas that are likely to benefit the greater good. Were money invested inperipheral areas turns out to be a bad investment, those money might have gonea long way through addressing the more pressing and urgent areas such as foodcultivation in less developed areas and biodiversity protection and so forth.Secondly, areas that are more likely to benefit the greater good are moreappealing to scientists not only the underlying success and widespread support,but also that those subjects also have a much wider data base for research andhence less likely to meet the research bottleneck. Moreover, their outcome andresults are more likely to be crystallized and applied popularly.

Beyondthese concessions, I believe that the speaker is too absolute while ignoringcertain situations when adopting such principle will not only fails to benefitthe greater good but also evokes potential harm. First, adopting this principlewill bring about undesirable outcome that many subjects and topics vital tosome specific groups will be further marginalized, making the minorities findthemselves on a slippery slope toward a more and more dim future. One need lookno further than the disabled around us, who also live in our community, sharingthe same interest and bearing the same right to thrive. If scientists onlyfocus on areas that concern the interest of the greater good while ignoring thedisabled, there will be no advanced fake legs for those who lost their legs inwars or accidents, depriving their opportunities to run and pursue happiness,even the possibility of being a Olympic champion; there will be no more littledevices aimed to help those who are blind or deaf to lead a normal life withdignity; there will be no such a thing like social networks designed particularlyfor the disabled so they can socialize online and even find their true lovebeyond geographical limits. No scientists will care when they are all busyworking with projects that will benefit the greater “good,” which precludescertain minorities since they are non-mainstream.

Finally,there are also topics that are not likely to benefit to greater good in nearfuture which are still of great essence, bearing duties of other kinds,including the mystery of the universe, the ancient earth, the human secret, andso on. One telling example involves the Watson and Crick, who, by studying thedata of X-ray, first presented the double helix staircase model of DNA, pushingthe boundaries of our knowledge and understanding towards ourselves, whichseems of little value to benefit the greatest number of people. I mean, do youfeel like benefitting from the discovery of the double helix staircase model ofDNA, which seems so distant from our day-to-day lives? However, such researchesare of great value for our further research about the secret of lives in thelong run.

Insum, the speaker generalizes too hastily about the topic choice of scientists.After all, doesn’t the value of science lie in the very freedom that we apply indetermining our topics, debating over the results, and thinking about the mechanisms?It is by freedom in choice that we have gone so far, rendering it inadvisableto forgo such freedom in choosing the research topics, which may be impeded byadopting the speaker’s claim that scientists should focus on areas that arelikely to benefit the greater good. In my perspective, we should leave thechoice to scientists so that all disciplines will flourish and benefit fromeach other, in which case everyone will benefit.

普渡哥

good job!

elephantograph

23号考试 得到普度哥肯定太爽了!