Is the past still useful to us? Some argue that looking back for an understanding of the past means little to today's life. In my opinion, although today is quite different from the past, we can still gain much guidance which is crucial to people's well-being from looking back at the past.
With a fast development of science and technology, more new and complex things such as the internet and cloning come into people's daily life. No similar things have never appeared before.  Thus it will be almost useless to look back for an understanding of the past in order to gain some guidance. For instance, the direction of the development of internet is unpredictable. Likewise,  questions such as how the cloning technology will benefit human beings and whether human cloning will become reality cannot be answered by lookingback of the past. We'll have to explore further to solve these problems. It seems that to the new things the past is not an effective indicator, this does not mean that the past is of no importance.
In fact, when looking back of the past, in many cases, people can gain much useful guidance for the present living which may contribute to society's well-being. For example, the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl gave a precious lesson to people. Looking back at these accidents, we learn how much damage could and must have been avoided when proper precautions are taken. Another good case in point is the Cultural Reform happened in China. Not seeing the basic laws of the development of society, Mao Zedong, the highest leader of China, advanced the movement. The Cultural Reform caused a great damage on China's society and has a deep influence on the country. During the movement, thousands of innocent people were killed and the law and social justice were trampled. Looking back at the tragedy, people learn the importance of democracy and the harm of dictatorship. This will help the society avoid such tragedy, contributing to people's well-being. Therefore, by looking back for an understanding of the past, people can gain much guidance which can help lead to a better life.
In sum, it is true that we can gain little guidance about some new and complex things from the past, but when looking back for an understanding of the past, the guidance we gain will contribute a lot to today's society people's well-being.