Princeton大学出版社新出了一本小书，内容却是一篇旧文章，“The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge”，原文发表在1939年10月号的Harper’s Magazine。文章的作者是Abraham Flexner，他或许最有资格写这个题目，因为他创建了普林斯顿高等研究院，一个科学家的伊甸园（至少他的初心如此，参见http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-279992-796615.html）。

   文章的主题大概是说，真正伟大的科学发现都是为了满足好奇而不是为了应用：

throughout the whole history of science most of the really great discoveries which had ultimately proved to be beneficial to mankind had been made by men and women who were driven not by the desire to be useful but merely the desire to satisfy their curiosity.

   不知道我们的科学管理者是否愿意接受这个事实（或观点），至少我没见哪个院所的目标是为了好奇。小书前面是Robbert Dijkgraaf写的导言，The World of Tomorrow，比正文还长。他回顾了1939年的科学，那年出现了原子弹的理论，出现了计算机，Flexner的乐园在无意间激发了核与数字的革命（unintentionally enabled the nuclear and digital revolutions）——我们能在项目申请书里写“无意”吗？

  Robbert最后说，F的文章犹如一个时间囊（time capsule），写在剧变和焦虑的年代，却写出了未来世界的希望。Looking back, it is remarkable how relevant and timely his observations about the power of human curiosity are to the world of today. It’s not hard to imagine that this will also be true for the world of tomorrow. 那么，无视好奇的力量，必将失去未来的世界。