Philosophy of Engineering
As a kid getting ready to go to engineering college, I am ashamed to say I barely knew the difference between science and technology (engineering) back then (they don’t ask such questions in the IIT-JEE exam). It took me a few years of being at work to finally get the difference. Or so I thought. Well ok, I was right about the parts I knew but turns out there are other aspects as well. I learnt all this after reading a few excerpts from the book, Radical Abundance , by Eric Drexler. First the part I already knew: “Scientific inquiry expands the scope of human perception and understanding; engineering design expands the scope of human plans and results.” Ok, that’s it: that’s all I knew. Drexler goes on to point out that in real life, the two fields often mix: “Engineering new instruments enables inquiry, while scientific inquiry can enable design.” and it is because of this intertwining of the two which can often “obscure how deeply they differ.” So what is this ...