Claim: Researchers should not limit their investigations to only those areas in which they expect to discover something that has an immediate, practical application. Reason: It is impossible to predict the outcome of a line of research with any certainty.

Should researcher focus only on short term goals or should they also consider long term goals? Some would argue that we should only have short-term goals in any research project, whilst other might say that we should not go based on time in a research projects rather we should go based on the final outcome of the research project. After weighing evidences on both sides of the issue, it seems that people who are quite involved in research should not consider short-term goals as the consequences of most of the activities in field of inquiry are big, if the goal is big and ambitious.

Let us take an example of the research which is going on in the area of humanoid robotics. Researcher in this area are trying to develop humanoid robots which can talk, walk, and behave like humans. This kind of robots will able to navigate automatically through dynamic environments. The ultimate purpose of this research work is to make the robots help human in their daily chores. Although this is a long-term goal but its consensuses will be great.

Similar to above example, let us consider the example of computer vision researcher who are trying to develop an instrument with the help of camera of to assist blind people. The primary goal of this reaserach is to develop a device which will allow a blind to see the world. Though the outcome of this research is uncertain, still researcher are putting more an more energy in it because if they will be successful in their work they will be developing a product to help blind people.

Some would argue that we should do only those kind of researches which will results in immediate application. These people might say that as the outcome of any kind of research is not certain, we should not have long-term goals. These people might also raise an issue with the development and innovation cost required by these long-term projects. But, we should consider the benefits of the final results not the intermediate obstacles while making a decision about research.

In sum, while there are aspects to be considered on both sides of the issue it seems that there are greater advantage of having long term goals in research.