Almost eight decades ago, the American educationalist Abraham Flexner published an essay entitled The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge. In it, he argued that the most powerful intellectual and technological breakthroughs usually emerged from research that initially appeared “useless”, without much relevance to real life.
As a result, it was vital, Flexner said, that these “useless” endeavours should be supported, even if they did not produce an immediate payback, because otherwise the next wave of innovation simply would not occur. “Curiosity, which may or may not eventuate in something useful, is probably the outstanding characteristic of modern thinking,” he declared. “It is not new. It goes back to Galileo, Bacon and Sir Isaac Newton, and it must be absolutely unhampered.”
It is a powerful point to ponder, particularly as Donald Trump’s new administration gets to work. When Flexner wrote those words in 1939, he knew that he was grappling with an epoch-making period: not only had the US just experienced a long depression but Europe was on the brink of war.