Chapter 70 Without science and technology, productivity cannot be improved[1]

(December 16, 1963) Social sciences also have a ten-year plan.The social sciences are lagging behind, and this time there is no planning.Social sciences also need to invest a little. There is a journal "Research Communication on Dialectics of Nature", which has been suspended for a long time, and now it is republished.It's good to republish.The second issue is out now. There must be a revolutionary spirit and a strict scientific attitude. The battle of science and technology must be fought, and it must be fought well.In the past we fought the battle of the superstructure, the establishment of the people's regime and the people's army.What is the purpose of building these superstructures? It is to engage in production.The purpose of engaging in superstructure and relations of production is to liberate productive forces.Now that the production relations have changed, it is necessary to increase productivity.Without science and technology, productivity cannot be improved.

Scientific research has both practical and theoretical aspects.In order to strengthen theoretical research, there must be dedicated personnel to do it, and it is impossible not to engage in theory.If we want to train a group of talented people who understand theory, we can also train them from among the workers and peasants.Those of us need to understand some natural science theories, such as medicine and biology. Death ray [2], we need to organize a group of people to study it.There must be a small group of people who do nothing but study it after eating.It doesn't matter if you don't have grades.In the military, apart from offensive weapons, we must pay attention to the study of defensive issues. Maybe our future operations will be mainly defensive.As for offensive weapons, we cannot compare with others in terms of the number of atomic bombs.Wars have always required both offense and defense. Fortification and cave digging are both defenses.The Great Wall of Qin Shihuang[3] was of little use.We are going to do some stupid things, we want to build underground factories, underground railways, year after year.

The scientific experiments in the three revolutionary movements mainly refer to the natural sciences.The research of social science cannot fully adopt the experimental method.For example, the study of political economics cannot use experimental methods, but abstract methods, which is what Marx said in "Das Kapital" [4].Commodities, wars, dialectics, etc., can only be generalized after observing thousands of phenomena. Published based on the transcript of the conversation kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

note [1] This is an excerpt from Mao Zedong’s interjection when listening to Nie Rongzhen, Vice Premier of the State Council and Director of the State Science and Technology Commission, report on the ten-year science and technology plan. [2] Death light, namely laser. [1] Qin Shihuang, that is, Yingzheng (259 BC-210 BC), the founder of the Qin Dynasty. [4] See the preface to the first edition of Marx's "Das Kapital" in 1867.The original text is: "Analyzing economic forms, neither microscopes nor chemical reagents can be used. Both must be replaced by abstraction."