I personally would prefer to do research that can be utilized as soon as possible. There is that sense of instant gratification where you can see what you have created and see it be applied in the ‘real world’. I feel that doing research that can only benefit future generations is a noble cause; however, it really depends on the researcher for whether or not he or she is okay with not seeing the fruits of their labor right away. This is pretty important to consider when deciding to either work in industry or academia since the latter could result in having your research approved, but not applied in your lifetime (perhaps). I feel that both these types of researches are important. Research that results in instant results may not have been possible without the research conducted by the researchers who chose to research something that may not been used until years later and vice-versa. The relationship between both types of research is essentially symbiotic.