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Prominent role for industry in Olympic opening ceremony

I think that you’ve perhaps unwittingly identified the issue with the sentences “the powerful industrial forces that have shaped the place in which we live today” compared with “Range Rover Evoques” (essentially fashion items), UAVs (main aim to snoop or kill), Dysons (good consumer products but hardly world changing and Dyson himself, through no particular fault of his own is no Brunel). Robotic surgery is more of a positive, forward looking technology, but biotech is probably likely to ultimately have a greater impact on human welfare. In the UK especially, engineering that is powerful and has the potential to *shape* the world (rather than go with the environmental flow) is seen as suspect and likely to have caused many of the supposed problems we have (or may have) today, starting with climate change, environmental degradation (mining, large scale agriculture) down to over production of consumer goods (making us unhappy) or food (obesity). Any defense or promotion of engineering has to address and firmly rebuke these ideas, although many in the engineering community probably do think that engineering is responsible for the above woes. If there’s anyone out there who would confidently continue to develop “the powerful industrial forces that have shaped the place in which we live today” into the future I’d be keen to meet them.

1 Aug 2012

9:01 am