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self-accelerating
Second World War
文中有分號
The differences in relative growth of various areas of scientific research have several causes. Some of these causes are completely reasonable results of social needs. Others are reasonable consequences of particular advances in science being to some extent self-accelerating. Some, however, are less reasonable processes of different growth in which preconception of the form scientific theory ought to take, by persons in authority, act to alter the growth pattern of different areas. This is a new problem probably not yet unavoidable; but it is a frightening trend. This trend began during the Second World War, when several governments came to the conclusion that the specific demands that a government wants to make of its scientific establishment cannot generally be foreseen in detail. It can be predicted, however, that from time to time questions will arise which will require specific scientific answers. It is therefore generally valuable to treat the scientific establishment as a resource or machine to be kept in functional order. This seems mostly effectively done by supporting a certain amount of research not related to immediate goals but of possible consequence in the future.
科學研究的各個領域相對發(fā)展速度各不相同，其中有若干原因。在這些原因中，有些純屬社會需求；另一些則是由于科學上某些特定發(fā)展在一定程度上自我加速而產(chǎn)生的必然結(jié)果。然而，有些產(chǎn)生發(fā)展速度差異的原因就不盡合理，僅是因為某些權(quán)威人士對科學理論究竟應采取何種形式有先入為主的想法，這些想法改變了不同學科領域的發(fā)展模式。這是一個新問題，雖然可以避免，但其趨勢卻令人擔憂。這種趨勢始于第二次世界大戰(zhàn)期間，當時一些國家的政府得出結(jié)論：政府要向其科研機構(gòu)提出具體的要求通常是無法詳盡預見的。然而，可以預見的是，往往會出現(xiàn)一些問題，要求有具體科學的解答。因此，把科研機構(gòu)看作一種資源或一臺機器，應維持其良好的運行狀態(tài)，這種做法通常很有價值。給某些與當前目標無關(guān)而將來則可能產(chǎn)生影響的科研予以支持，看來能夠有效地解決這個問題。