nishio: Well, today we are going to talk about Social Significance. You could say that there are different opinions on this, or you could say that it is a broad but common direction. âI donât appreciate the social significance at all,â and from the side of âwe need to do something about the adults who are harmful and mis-educate people that they should include social significance in their proposals,
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nishio: up to âinvolving social significance can be beneficial in doing what you want to doâ. You could say that there is a range, and that generally people donât focus on social significance.
nishio: I was thinking about how I am, and felt that this âsocial significanceâ is also an obscure concept. The âcommunityâ and âsignificanceâ are indistinctness.
nishio: The size of âsocietyâ varies from person to person. Some people set âsocietyâ as all mankind or all Japanese as their target, while others set âpeople within a radius of 5 metersâ. The former often make iffy suggestions. The reason is that the target is not concrete.
nishio: Mentors who give negative feedback to proposals that focus on âsocial significanceâ are probably not negative because of the social significance written in the proposal, I think they are negative because the âsocial significanceâ they claim to have is vague, unclear, or imaginary, not based on concrete examples.
nishio: In contrast, the âItâs not useful for anything, but I want to make it, so Iâll make it! There is a clear need for the âI want to make this! If I can do it, I will be happy. In that sense, it is a clearer description than proposals that talk about vague social significance.
nishio: âI want to make this! One of the mentors said, âThatâs a great idea! Iâd like to see it completed myself! If one mentor sees a proposal and says, âI want to make this!
nishio: I see, after all, the existence or non-existence of âsocial significanceâ is something that society decides. It can be said that there is âsocial significanceâ only when it is confirmed that there are people who actually enjoy it, and whether it actually exists or not remains to be verified even if you just think about it in your head and claim âthere is social significanceâ on a piece of paper.
nishio: let me write about another connection with the key phrase âmaking something oneâs ownâ. Projects targeting the wider society tend to obscure âwhy are you doing it?â is often unclear. The application form for the Junior Research Fellows Program includes the question, âWhy are you doing this? but not âWhat is the social significance? but not âWhat is the social significance?
nishio: if you check now, you will see that âwho would be happy to do this? It doesnât have to be useful for a lot of people. It may not be useful, but it can be interesting.â It explicitly said. Itâs explicitly saying that it doesnât have to be a proposal that helps a lot of people.
nishio: This is related to the âadults who incorrectly instruct that social significance should be included in proposals are harmfulâ argument, but I think the first and most important thing is âanswer the questions they are asking. The first and most important thing is to âanswer the question they are asking. Iâm designing this with the assumption that theyâll think for themselves about what theyâre asking and answer honestly, so I donât want the adults around them to get in the way.
nishio: even just the proposal is so distorted by various assumptions that itâs hard to read, so some mentors are angry at the adults who make the distortions bigger. Itâs only natural that some mentors get angry at the adults who make the distortions bigger. I am the type of person who thinks that it is expensive to deal with the adults directly, so I wonder if I can make things better by disseminating information.
nishio: Now that Iâve thought about it a lot, let me finish by verbalizing âSo what do I think about the social significance? I positively evaluate âhaving social significance,â but the scope of what I consider âhavingâ social significance is much narrower than the rest of the world. I consider anything that does not have concrete beneficiary faces to be âuntestedâ.
nishio: if you look into your own mind, it looks like this âUnverified social significance is being claimed.â <(high wall)<âI want to do itâ <âThe social significance is verified.â <<âSocial significance has been verified and has the potential to scale.â
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