Huayu for engineering students

Chapter 190 The Monkey Looking Up at the Starry Sky

Although Professor Duan included the price of the scanning electron microscope in this research, it is definitely not a random gossip.After all, without the electron microscope, this paper would not have been published, and it is a key device for the paper, so it is reasonable to count it in.

Once a piece of "Science" is finished, the several million dollars are considered to be worth the money, and any results made with it in the future will be earned.

Professor Duan was obviously stunned by the question, and Professor Yan was even more angry, why did he owe such a favor.

This problem is actually unsolvable, because it is a logical cycle.

Because there will always be people who don’t have enough to eat, even if they are fed enough, there are also people who don’t have enough clothes to wear. The growing material and cultural needs of the broad masses of the people, well, in fact, can never be satisfied.

Any direct answer to this question is actually falling into this logical cycle.

Zhu Zaiyu, an educator in the Ming Dynasty, once wrote a poem "Ten Inadequacies". Well, it is not very famous, and the poem is quite ordinary, more like a doggerel.

But there are a few of them, but there are many variants circulating.

"Running around all day is only for hunger, so I have to eat and think about clothes. I wear Lingluo on my body, but I think the house is low when I look up.

......"

This poem describes a person's insatiable desire, but it is quite realistic.

Those people who shouted contentment and happiness are basically people who have no worries about food and clothing.Even so, among those who have no worries about food and clothing, being able to be content and happy is already a big heart and a good self-cultivation, okay?

But after all, lay people account for the vast majority in the world, and this is enlarged to more than one billion people in the whole country. The problems of people's livelihood will never be solved.

Even, whether desire is motivation or resistance can be discussed in philosophy for hundreds of years.

Therefore, this question is also an eternal question, which can be asked on almost any costly project, even if the question is directly related to people's livelihood.

You can ask why the poor are not fed first, and you can even ask why the interests of these people are sacrificed to satisfy the interests of others.

The essence of this question is not whether your research is important or not, and whether it is worthwhile to spend money like this, but a kind of moral kidnapping.Because, no matter how important you prove your problems are, they are not more important than human lives.

This kind of paradoxical question can be used for speculation and discussion.But asking at the press conference is finding fault in itself.

Therefore, no matter how you answer this question positively, it doesn't make any sense.

Wang Xu reached out to pass the microphone. This kind of moral kidnapping question really shouldn't be answered by those professors, but he, a young man, is more suitable to answer.

"I can also ask you this question, what is the meaning of your work?
Every day you eat the wages given to you by the country and enjoy the food and clothing given to you by the people.

But it is just writing and writing, and it has to consume paper to print it out, and it can't even produce any physical output.

So, is your work really related to people's livelihood?
Can those who cannot eat enough be fed, and those who cannot be clothed warmly? "

Wang Xu asked back slowly, the man was still holding the microphone in his hand, and immediately answered:

"I can't let them have enough food and clothing, but I can let more people know that they don't have enough food and clothing." This is the standard reporter's answer. These days, reporters are the real uncrowned kings, with a very high status, and everywhere they go. The kind that can eat.

"Well, what then? Do you expect others to save you? Why don't you do it yourself?

You can buy at least five pieces of clothes in padded jackets, and if you keep one, you can keep four people who are not warm enough to wear it. Why don’t you do it? "Wang Xu continued to ask, standing on the moral high ground, who would not be the Holy Mother and others.

"I'm just a reporter." This reporter seemed a little immature. That's right, the Southern Department actually doesn't pay attention to technology news, so it's rare to send someone here.

"Yeah, you know, you're just a reporter, it's your job to record the news, and the news you report is your product.

And we are scientific researchers, scientific research is our work, and papers are our results. Is there a problem? "

"Then you shouldn't spend money recklessly." The man stiffened his neck, his face flushed a little.

"Missing money? That's a big allegation. Are you accusing us of misappropriating funds?" Well, that's easy, the reason moral issues can't be resolved with words is because there are no firm rules.

But the accusation is a matter of the legal level, the rules are clear and clear, and even the management unit has clearly stipulated it.

Therefore, Wang Xu wished that he would really start accusing him.

"I'm not, I don't, don't talk nonsense." Hehe, deny Sanlian, now there is one.He didn't seem stupid enough to make a direct accusation. On this occasion, it would be courting death to directly accuse the misuse of funds.

"I can tell you how important our research is, and the future is definitely about people's livelihood.

I can also tell you that if you don’t invest millions in research now, you may have to spend tens of billions in purchases in the future.

But I know that none of these can convince you. What you are asking is not a question of where the funds will be spent.

It is a moral problem, and it is a moral paradox, the essence of which is the same as that of the trolley problem.

There is no answer to this kind of question, and the world has been arguing for hundreds of years without any result.

If you ask here, you are either stupid and don't know that there is no answer to this kind of question.

Either it's bad, deliberately making trouble.So reporter friends, tell me, which one are you? "Wang Xu spoke slowly, with a touch of emperor-like laxity, and he was no longer as serious as when he answered the question just now.

"puff"

"Ha ha"

There was laughter everywhere. It can be said that the audience here is a gathering of elites. Most of them already knew that he was deliberately digging a hole, and they all wanted to see how this young man, Wang Xu, would answer.

The orthodox answer must be to explain how important this research is, and then pass it by, but I didn't expect this young man to ask directly, moral kidnapping, and then analyze it, and finally simply say that he is either stupid or bad.

Sure enough, I feel a little young, and this kind of confrontation cannot be reported in the newspapers, but everyone is more interested in this young man himself.

The reporter was too embarrassed to continue standing, and sat down embarrassingly.Teacher Yan pointed to another person. This teacher Yan knew him and was from the Imperial Capital Evening News. There shouldn't be any weird problems.

"I'm a reporter from the Imperial Capital Evening News, I would like to ask classmate Wang Xu, the answer just now is very interesting.

But I still want to know the part you just skipped, which is what do you really think about the significance of your research? "The reporter of the Imperial Capital Evening News is a middle-aged man, who did not expect that he would continue to follow Wang Xu's answer just now.

"The meaning of research.

I know that our China is quite backward. In every respect, this is a fact, and it has to be admitted.

In fact, if they want to have enough food and clothing, they just need to catch up with foreign technology. They could have enough food and clothing decades ago.

It won't work in a year, it won't work in ten years, and it will always catch up to the same level in decades.

But other than that, can we really just chase forever?

Even if it is a group of monkeys, there must always be one looking up at the starry sky. "

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(so far)
(End of this chapter)