Guild Wars 2

Tonight, I heard a Priory NPC declare that “Research is only as valuable as its application”.

This, by a country mile, has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard come out of a scholar’s mouth. If anything, I would expect a scholar to understand most keenly that the point of research is not for the sake of practical applications, but the point of research is discovery. Do you think we knew what we were going to do with electricity when Faraday realized that magnets moving past wire coils induced electron flow? Faraday was alleged to have been unable to come up with any use for it, other than to say that “one day, you [Mr. Prime Minister] may tax it,” but this is apocryphal at best.

Less apocryphal, are numerous other scientific discoveries.

Teflon was an accident.
Penicillin was an accident.
Rubber as we know it today, was an accident. (see: Vulcanization)
Plastics were an accident. (see: Bakelite)
The first synthetic dye was an accident.

Even when research DOESN’T turn up usable results, either by design or by accident, the result is still valuable. Thomas Edison is quoted as having said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 things that don’t work.”

So, thus armed with a sufficiently scientific mind, (and considering that Edison was more of a marketing guy that operated within the scientific realm with some proficiency) which is something that I would expect out of all Priory members… to say that “Research is only as valuable as its application” is really dumb.

Um, wow. Calm down. It’s a harmless, meaningless flavor dialogue.

Just because you encountered a single generic priory npc who holds the opinion that research is only as valuable as its application does not mean you can automatically assume that all other priory members follow the same concept. Your sample size is far too small to jump to such broad conclusions.

its all depend on the research been done. so people do research for just pure the application and another pure for the discovery.

The other posters made valid points. But I want to play devils advocate here.

There’s a war on. A war versus giant magical dragons. The priory is thus dedicated to discovering ways to defeat them. To the priory, any research that probably wont have a practical usage is a waste of man power. Yes awesome things are discovered by accident, but you cant leave fighting a war to chance.

As a social science student myself, I think you’re taking the word ‘application’ with too narrow a definition. When studying culture, is it the practical application that’s important? No – in fact how people use such research is often pretty awful, because they take it to be more conclusive and final that it should ever be. However, I’d say an ethnography, for instance, is only a curiosity if it is never used. Whether it sparks a new theory about human society, is used in a comparison to challenge an assumption, or is held up as an example of why a particular ‘race’ or culture is dangerous and should be stamped out – these ‘applications’ of research will define its value and importance at LEAST as much as the work itself.

Or maybe I’m just defending the Priory because, like them, I’m an academic and I can’t leave a problem alone :P