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self-accelerating
Second World War
文中有分号
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.
科学研究的各个领域相对发展速度各不相同，其中有若干原因。在这些原因中，有些纯属社会需求；另一些则是由于科学上某些特定发展在一定程度上自我加速而产生的必然结果。然而，有些产生发展速度差异的原因就不尽合理，仅是因为某些权威人士对科学理论究竟应采取何种形式有先入为主的想法，这些想法改变了不同学科领域的发展模式。这是一个新问题，虽然可以避免，但其趋势却令人担忧。这种趋势始于第二次世界大战期间，当时一些国家的政府得出结论：政府要向其科研机构提出具体的要求通常是无法详尽预见的。然而，可以预见的是，往往会出现一些问题，要求有具体科学的解答。因此，把科研机构看作一种资源或一台机器，应维持其良好的运行状态，这种做法通常很有价值。给某些与当前目标无关而将来则可能产生影响的科研予以支持，看来能够有效地解决这个问题。