Science Forums 2

[paigetheoracle]

Originally Posted by coberst

“In Mexico, farmers who noticed velvetbean growing wild in their fields used it to increase soil fertility and improve maize yields. In Northern Ethiopia, farmers reclaimed farmland from a river by constructing walls in the river bed and diverting the water flow. In India, an innovative farmer designed a tree plantation that successfully survived a severe three-year drought. Farmers' innovations have stood the test of time and hold the potential to meet the challenges of increasing production and managing the natural resource base.

During the last 40 or 50 years, however, many farmers have relied less on their own experimentation and innovation, and become more dependent on outside information provided through extension systems. This has had the effect of disempowering many farmers, as they became passive recipients of knowledge and technology.”

http://www.farmradio.org/english/pub...s/v2003sep.asp

This is the equivalent in the political field of local and central goverment. Outside help of this type creates uniformity and leads to dependence, which turns everyone into clones of the mother society and just as helpless as real clones because they are without the necessary investigative and creative powers needed for survival, should something outside their experience occur. Pure research turns up unexpected results with equally unexpected applications and helps the progress of a society, whereas applied research knows what it is going after and dismisses everything outside that scope. It is like 'looking' as opposed to 'seeing'. By this I mean concentrated pursuit of the known versus accidental stumbling upon the unknown (Serendipity or fortuitous discovery - like penicillin or the telephone [found while trying to expand upon the invention of the telegraph, that is it started off as applied but stumbled into pure research through a couple of accidental side issues or discoveries, seemingly not relevant at the time]).