Abraham Flexner, founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, N.J., wrote an essay in 1939 titled “The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge.” His essay has recently been republished as a short book of the same title (Princeton University Press, 2017), which also contains a companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, the institute’s current director.
Mr. Flexner makes two points that seem to me particularly important right now, especially for policy makers thinking about higher education in the United States. One is that it is impossible to predict what research will turn out to be “useful” and therefore it’s foolish to try; some of the most important discoveries in the history of science have been the fruits of work that began with no clear practical application.
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