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.