An unusual engineer

“It may be the warriors that get the glory, but it’s the engineers that build society” – B’lanna Torres, ST:Voyager 7.10

Enzo Abbagliati was kind enough to invite me to write for the third anniversary of his blog, cadaunadas, and the result was this short post, somewhat Orwellian, a reflection on cyberspace invading everyday life.

What I liked was that Enzo introduces me as an “unusual engineer”. He leaves the definition open, though I have my suspicions about what he means. I liked it because it means that what I’m trying to do on this and the other blog has an impact outside the tech world.

When people talk about engineers, and going by the stereotypes, the image we project is worrying, but not far off. I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with how engineers are trained, and it’s the lack of a more well-rounded education, one that gives them culture and a concern for the affairs of the society we live in.

Indeed, these days you run into engineers who are tremendously uncultured, with very little "humanist" education, and with a staggering arrogance, the kind typical of the ignorant. It’s also true that the neglect of technical matters, and the lack of precision in much of society, are causing damage that will take generations to repair. What we have to do is build bridges (something we’re supposed to be good at) between the world of precision, the engineers' world, and the rest of human activity. We need to enrich ourselves. It shouldn’t be unusual for engineers to care about the issues that concern society as a whole. On the contrary, it should be the usual thing.

Because after all, just as the Star Trek character B’lanna Torres says, it may be the warriors (and the politicians) that get the glory, but it’s the engineers that build society.