>The best possible essay at any given time would usually be one describing the most important scientific or technological discovery
That sounds like a trekie concluding that the best literature is "Star Trek" licensed novels...
Sorry, but PG didn't invent or define the essay.
It is a form that is centuries old (and in prior incarnations, millenia old) and have its own long cultural history, classics, and canon, few of the latter being about "important scientific or technological discoveries".
Maybe if instead of "best" he changed it to "most impactful scientifically" he'd have a point.
That sounds like a trekie concluding that the best literature is "Star Trek" licensed novels...
Sorry, but PG didn't invent or define the essay.
It is a form that is centuries old (and in prior incarnations, millenia old) and have its own long cultural history, classics, and canon, few of the latter being about "important scientific or technological discoveries".
Maybe if instead of "best" he changed it to "most impactful scientifically" he'd have a point.