The changling nature of engineering by M. C. Duff)

Engineering artsfdcts play major roles in thc evolution of mankind and culture. Engineering artefacts have evolved. Their niatures have changed as Man has changed. Today, the engineering profession (and the education o f engineers are challenged by the rapidly changi fig nature of those engineering systems which determine what is meant by ‘modern technology’ and which make possible new industries qfglobal importonce. Analysis ofthe latest generation o f strategii innovations requires an analytical history $technology, anld a practically useful philosophy to inteqrret the changing nature $engineering. T h e advent o f ‘ttdnaoscience’ will probably make engineering the exemplary science in the next century,

Introduction

walk round any major, well ordered museum like the South Kensingp~n Science Museum, or the Deutsches Mluseum in A Munich, will reveal the part played by

engineering in the evolution ofhunian beings aiid their civilisation. The flint axe of 250 000 BC; the waggons and kilns of the third and fourth millenia BC; the technolsogies of Classical Antiquity; the technologies of Chinese, Inhan, Asian, Mediterranean and European cultures; the post-Newcomen technology of the European world; and the information tecl-mology of the present represent stages in the evolution of technology. Since artefacts were first used, eiigineering systems have chmged their nature in a manner as marked as the changes characterising the evolution of Homo scpiens from earlier forms of primate.

The use of artefacts long predates the emergence of modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens). Honzo hahilis was the first species of hominid to use stones a.s tools, in East Afiica, c. .Z million years BC. Homo ewctus, c. 1.5 nullion years BC, spread in Africa, Europe, China, and South East Asia. Homo sapiens (archaic) was extant c. 350000 BC. The branch Homo sapierzs neandevhalis, extant c. 100 000 BC:, became extinct, leaving .Homo sapiens sapiens, extant c. 125 000 UC, the only species of hominid lefi by 30 000 BC. The evolving use of tools is part of the history of this

emergence of new species, with higher levels of consciousness, language and analysis which is still going 011. Yet the studies of the evolution of engineering cannot be said to have done justice to the subject and the history of engineering is8 in an underdeveloped state compared to historical studies of other disciplines.

In Britain, mid-19th century cultural prejudices against engineering, eiishriried in the education system through the influence of writers such as M. Arnold (1 869) and J. H. Newnian (‘I X52), delayed the develop- ment of a mature history and philosophy of engineering. Arnold’ held up the railway builder as the archetypal philistine, who pursued niateriahst goals rather than enlightenmeni;, and the engiineer received some of the blame for tht: worst features of industrial civilisation. Newman2 advocated an education system which rejected industrial and commercial values. There can be no denying the influence of Arnold and Newnian in British educa.t.ion, especially in the older schools and universities, where there was an ethos hostile to engineering and industry wlhich survived into the 1950s and is not yet dead’. After 1880, pure science was recognised as fit for educating enlightened gentlemen, but a gap opened between pure and applied disciplines aiid there was a general prejudice in British culture against science in favoui- of the humanities‘. This prejudice has caused ithe nature of engineering to be grossly misrepresented an.d misunderstood in British culture from 1950 to the present, and the under- developed condition of British history of technology has lefi the problem unresolved. However, the latest technologies require a mature history and philosophy of engineering to help solve technical problems arising froin recent developments. The radcally changing nature of engineering is creating problems which can no longer be ignored and the education system and the professioix need to meet tlhis challenge.

Engineering and mind

Engineering is niuch more than the manufacture of articles by mechaiiical nietlhods. There is a two-way interaction between artefact and mind, and design is essentially a meiital activityi,‘. Engineering forms, imaginary or actual, need to be related to the ways in which engineering is conceptualised, imagined, analysed and described, and much more needs to be done to develop a philosophy of engineering thought.

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Fig. 1 ordinate brain, hand and eye to make this axe he was not able to analyse the production process or criticise the resulting artefact (Copyright British Museum)

Flint hand-axe, c.250 000 BC. Although early Homo sapiens could co-

The need is pressing at a time when the most abstract theories, as found for example in stules of consciousness, intelligence or ‘virtual reality’, are of great practical import, and are the ‘material’ with which the engineer works. Engineering has always been a mental activity of great cultural significance, but the history of engineering thought is incomplete, particularly with regard to the origins of technics and the evolution of thinkmg in a technological context. By which stages chd evolving hominids gain the SUS to represent technical activity, such as the making of flint axes (Fig. l ) , iii speech or written symbols? How was the ability to recognise shape and form acquired? When did the onset of analysis occur? When did our ancestors learn to think in the abstract about technical devices? For example, ‘pictures’ and models of carts accompany the evolution of the full-sized cart (Fig. 2) afier 4000 BC7, but when did the concept of ‘cartness’ and the notion of an ‘ideal cart’ appear? Performing thought-experiments with imaginary models of technologies is now a normal part of design, but when &d it become ai1 essential part of progressive engineering-in the 17th century or later?’

The nature of late 20th century engineering confronts the engineer with problems of the greatest abstraction. The design in the engineer’s head, the design modelled in thc computer, the model in the laboratory and the actual manufactured product need to be related. It may be necessary to assess their ontological status-especially in cognitive science. This raises questions as profound as those associated with fundamental physics, where imaginary concepts, mathematical formal structures, physical models and actual, observed quantities have to be interrelated to determine limits of accuracy and possibility.

Engineers working at the frontiers of their discipline and philosophers of science have much to say to each

and today, as

other. Studies of evolution and comparative stules ofhuinan, animal, artificial and simulated intelligence are deepening insight into the ways the nllnd works. The new hnds of engineering artefact and the concepts of the new engineering science associated with such work are suggesting ideas, analogues and models which carry science and philosophy forward. An example is the technology used in the investigations of the structure and functions of the dfferent components of the bicameral brain and how these functions relate to consciousness, personahty and organised thought. Another example is the nanotechnology which enables experiments to be carried out within the nucleus of a human cell.

Since 1600, engineering has become more a science and less a craft, far as the strategic innovations are -

concerned, best practice is often demonstrated by a theory. Exact engineering science is practical experience analysed and expressed through theory, with the theory being progressively modified in the light of experience. The practical importance of theories is demonstrated in the new fields of ‘techno- science’ where engineering, medcal technology, microelectronics, neuroscience, nanotechnology and computer science are combining to create engineering systems which set new standards for defining best practice. Research into ethology, artificial intelligence, biological intelhgence, mind and brain uses new concepts, constructs and theories which serve as tools for solving practical problems within these disciplines. What the engineers of the next century mean by ‘practical’ wdl be lfferent from definitions given by engineers in 1600, 1700, 1800 or 1900, or at any time since rational technology, changing by virtue ofits own inner dynamic, emerged as a recognisable entity. Once engineering had emerged as a recognisable entity, it could be systematically analysed and redefined in an increasingly scientific manner. It is not possible to define engineering in one set of terms, framed in a particular period, with any hope that this description will endure indefinitely. Definitions of the nature of ciiginccring will need to be changed repeatedly as the transformations of components and systems become ever more ralcal and frequent'. In the 21st century, engineering will probably

become the exemplary science. The engineering approach to consciousness and intelligence, examina- tion of the similarities and lfferences between the brain and parallel processing information systems, and theories that self-awareness is due to the self-scanning action of the brain have implications for philosophy, metaphysics and theology, Engineering has always

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directly influenced philosophy, metaphysics and theology though historians have been slow to recognise this.

Engineering exemplars and st ra tegl ic in nov,a tion

In any age there are engineering artefacts, including theoriemj and methods, representing technologies which originated in dfferent periods and cultures. Sometimes a glance around reveals types dating from periods ancient t’o recent. Imagine a motor car waiting at an automatic level crossing for a diesel tr.iin to pass. Over the car radio comes news of a drug for treating arthritis, a missile attack in Sarajevo and the resumption of nucllear weapons tests. A cyclist waiting at the crossing, mounted on the latest lightweight cycle and dressed in synthetic materials, adjusts a portable radio clipped to his belt. In the middle distance is an 18th century windmill, still working but dependent for income on tourists flown from the U!jA by jet transport. A horse drawn cart is being loaded by the mill using a simple hoist. In the background is an electric transmission line, and on high, the vapour trail of a jet strike-aircraft. A gardener outside a roadside cottage uses a wheelbarrow, spade, hoe .and shears which have not changed their basic form for centuries. The cottage was once the stationmaster’s house, but the station was close’d in the 1960s and the buillngs are now used by a company selling information technol’ogy systems to small businesses and farmers in the area. In the cottage, a TV screen flickers and a woman plays the piano-an advanced example of engineering when first perfected. In the yard, her child tries to knock a row of cans and plastic bottlcs off a wall using a sling shot. A closer look along the roadside reveals half hidden vestiges of other engineering products: plastic, iron, earthenware piping; barbed

wire; farmer’s hosepipe; bits of discarded agricultural machinery; overgrown traces of wartime pillboxes and road blocks; an enamelled sign-&om the old station- used to stop a gap in the hedge. A smoke pall in the distance marks the terminal on the coast where the North Sea oil comes ashore, and the radio masts near the coast can just be seen.

Some of these devices have changed status in a very short time; some over centuries. Some once repre- sented engineering in its most advanced form, but are now commonplace, though important--such as accurate, metal screws; thl- piano; clocks; glassware. Others, though simple, su~ili as the spade, hoe, pruning hook and basic garden tools, have played a role in human development which can hardly be exaggerated. But in any age there are forms which represent best practice and others which represent the experimental technologies from which the best practice of the succeeding era will come. ‘These wdl contain engineering devices which set new standards for determining what is meant by ‘modern engineering’. These exeniplars call into existence new industries, new standards of education and training, new methods of organisation, management, production and research. They result in new theories, analytical methods, and concepts. Without the mathematicd analysis of electrical systems by Steinmetz, Hopkinson, Kron et al., and the development of symbols, network diag- rains, and terminology, there would have been no heavy-duty electrical engineering: no AC motors, no centralised power stations, no nati0n.d grids, no electrical railways.

The analytical and conceptual apparatus is as much engineering as the equipment from former times displayed in the technical museums. Unfortunately, network analysis, or motor theory, cannot be easily displayed in a museum or ilUiistrated in a general history book, because the public does not comprehend them.

~

Fig. 2 its construction car1 be attributed to the inability of its builders to analyse its form and to visualise an ideal cart

Steppe waggon, c.2500 BC. Considerable skill was required to build a waggon such as this. The slow evolution of

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Pieces of equipment, such as motors, loconiotives and water wheels, can be displayed and have captured the iiiiagiiiation of the public. Pictures of them can convey a great deal. Recent technologies are not so easily &splayed, least of all the ideas which find expression in the equip- ment. The changing nature of engineering is trans- forming the means by which it is described and represented. Unfortunately, historians continue to neglect the conceptual apparatus of engineering which has had a con- siderable cultural impact. To see only ‘industrial archacology’ in the history of engineering is to ii&

interpret the nature of post- 1600 development.

Fig. 3 Ore-crushing machine worked by overshot waterwheel, 1556 (Agricola). The illustrations in

Agricola‘s review of engineering systems show great insight into machine elements and mechanical principles. They enabled workmen who were illiterate, or who could not read the Latin text, to build machinery representative

of the latest practice

It is possible to trace the path of engineering progress through centuries of complex cultural change by analysing the ‘best practice’ technology. In the 17th century scientific engineering came into being as an intrinsically progressing and progressive activity“’. By 1700, it was established that the futures of society, the political order and industry would be different from those of past ages. Progress through rational method, guided by science and informed by analysis of man’s history, belie6 and behaviour, was the inspiring goal of the Enlightenment. Engineering and mechanised industry were its agents. New engineering devices, such as the steam engines and powered textile mills of the 18th century, surpassed those of former civilisations and cultivated a sense of technological change. Standards were no longer set by designs which were very old, such as the Chinese or Ronian military machinery which was still being copied centuries afier the empires in which they originated had disappeared. The devices illustrated by Agricola (Fig. 3) retained their usefulness for several hundred years and survived into the 20th century After 1600, technical innovation was sought through science, with experiment playing a major part, and by the iiiid-18th ceutury engineers expected noticeable improvement in their lifetimes (Fig. 4). In the 19th century, constant improvement of the most conservative and long-established technology was taken for granted. Today, in fields such as niicro- electronics, computing, robotics, medical engineering, iiaiiotcchnology and studies of intelligence, it is a problem to keep pace with innovation, to assess progress in several fields and to integrate advances from diverse sources. Part of the changing nature of eiigin- eeriiig is this ability to transform itself rapidly, at an

accelerating rate. The Newconien atinos-

pheric steam engine of 1712 was a strategic inno- vation”. It marked the advent of a mechanised, industrial society depend- ent on innovations which accelerated the pace of its own expanding develop- ment. Since then, the global economy has de- veloped through distinct phases, dominated by en- gineering and its conse- quences. Each distinct phase was begun by technical innovation. Par- ticular exaiiiples, such as the Newconien engine, the Cronipton mule and the Darby coking oven, trans- formed an industrial process, enabled it to expand and created new industries which played a

strategic role in that era. There is evidence that during periods of growth, a limited number of industries, based on engineering innovations of equal degrees of modernity, interact with each other. They form networks for exchanging ideas, practice, skills and products. Growth industries are markets for other growth industries. The group of strategic industries may sometimes be dominated by one-the ‘grand exemplar’-which best o f all exemplifies the vision, science, technology, organisation and skilled workforce which the others emulate. Historians have identified in this role the coal mining industry of the 18th century, the steam railway of the period 1830 to 1880 and the American automotive industry between 1910 and 1940. It is perhaps unjustified to claim that there is generally just one ‘grand exemplar’, but in each era there is a small group of standards-setting industries which exercises influence over the economy, which depends on it. The influence extends to education and training; to conunerce, public administration and politics; and to general culture. In the 18th century, the coal, iron, textile and canal industries were the strategic group; in the 19th century it was steam railways, s team ships and the manufacture of textiles, iron and steel in industries transformed by steam power. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the strategic group consisted of the electric power industry, mass production technology, and the automotive industry. This is not to deny the significance of other industries, but generally a relatively small number of technological enterprises serve as sources for engineering systems, methods and ideas which determine the nature, direction and pace of future development. These are

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tlie strxegic engineering systems. For ;I nation tsn fall behind in strategic engineering

enterprise is a very grave matter, as this can lead to industrial decline and a general culturd malaise. During periods of growth, the strategic industries attract kinds invested for profit, but a tinie conies when they become less fruitful and perhaps exhausted, a condition often marked by the obsolescence of the technologies which define their nature and determine their perEormance". The industry mighi: continue to be ecoiioiiically iniportant, as was the British textile industry after 1890, even though it is no longer a source of strategically significant innovations of the world- traiisfoirming cl.ass. Ai1 industry in this state is vulnerable to any rival enterprise defined by more inoder n technoloby-and it was with iiiodern engineering systems that the US textik industry gained ascendancy over the British in the 1930s.

When industries which were oiice strategic beconie less productive and profitablle, capital seeking niaxinium returns flows into those innovalive activities which create the strategic industries of the next phase, unless there are more attractive investments outside the industirial sector. One of-the tasks facing the historian is to identi5 the stage in the evolution of a technoloby when it found a form which convinced the financial world that it was worthy of sufficient investment to enable general development tci take place. Case histories might suggest methods which the innovation nianager can me to assess which potentially useful iiiiiovatioiis under review arl: worthy of financial support.

Strategic innovation and economic growth

History of economics suggests that post-1700 indu\trial growth fall5 into distinct period?, begun b) groups of

vital interacting iiidustries located in relatively few places. The first period '-" was creatcd by tlie engiiieering coniponents ;md systems of the textile, coal and iron industries, and was marked by an increasing use of water power (Fig. 4) and steam power (Fig. 5). The most important stratcgic activity was building up expertise in the application of steam power. Thc next pliase was doli-iinated by the steam railway (Fig. 6) with its attendant industries and services, Er0111

within which caiiie thc iicw ideas and practices which coiitiiiued to transform industrial society'".''. Heavy- duty, industrial electrification'""' began a third period, which was dominated by maction in its early phase and later by the motor car industry and by services dependent on scientific rescarch. These included wireless telegraphy, 'cheiiiicab manufacture and aviation. The fourth period began with the engineering innovations of tlie 1939-1'945 war: electronics, aviation ancl rocketry, nuclear power, coinputing and teleconiiiiuiiicatioiis. It is probable that a fifth era is now being intimducedl by artificial intelligence, ~~anotechnology, advanced biotechnology and the engineering systeii-is ei-ncirging from studies of the brain, niind and consciousness.

In each of these distinct periods, a small group of interacting industries, which are dependent on strategic engineering innovations, define best practice and lead industrial growth. The engineering systems on which they depend transform contemporary understanding of technology throughout industry, education and general culture. The Arkwright water frame and the Crompton i-nule were prime components in the integrat'ed factory system, powered by water wheel and steam engine. These meclianisnis represented new orders of coniplixity and productivity. The stean-railway redefined the concept of machine- ensemble, in the context of systems, arid the railway companies exemplified the large, financially poweiful

Fiig. 4 The waterworks at London1 Bridge, c.1730. Hydraulic systems powered and supplied by wheels like this one installed at London Bridge in the early 18th century exemplified standards-setting engineering systems in the 117th and 18th centuries. They powered the strategiic industries (iron working, textile mills) and stimulated early studies of fluid flow and the behaviour of combined mechanical and hydraullic systerns. By this date, improvements to eingineering systems were consciously sought. Progress was a recognised ideal (Courtesy of the Newcomen Society, London)

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public institution. Later, the electric power industry stimulated analysis of large, integrated, quantifiable systems which required new techniques for opera- ting them and assessing future needs. Electrification marked a transformation in the nature of industry and daily life (Fig. 7). The electronic computer and the later developments of technoscience accelerated the pace of change in all departments of life and introduced new sorts of industry and new sorts of engineer. Design, planning and production in heavy industries, such as loco- motive manufacture, were transformed as the simple mechanical components of steam traction equipment gave way to electrical and electronic components

Fig. 5 Newcomen atmospheric steam engine, 1712. The Newcomen steam engine is a major example of a

strategic innovation created by integrating components dating from earlier systems with original innovations to

obtain an ensemble with long-term development potential. It was the first commercially successful steam

engine. It was introduced into a culture conscious of change and the ideal of progress (Courtesy of the

Newcomen Society, London)

(Fig. 8). In the 18th century shlled technicians used watchmaker’s tools to make microscopes, telescopes and other scientific instruments. Today they use scanning tunnelling microscopes and superconducting quantum interference devices in engineering research carried out with industrial application in mind. The implications for the education and training of all grades of engineer are great. Many of the attitudes to engineering and the profession, prevalent throughout industrial culture, were formed in the second and third periods mentioned above and were defined by

technologies which are no longer strategic. The developments in the fourth period led to widespread changes in the profession and in edu- cation, and the current radical transformation of the nature of strategic engineering will demand stdl wider, fundamental changes. The standards- setting engineering of the next century may result from neuroscience, evolu- tionary genetics, com- puter science, micro- electronics, nanotechnol- ogy, molecular physics, microbiology and quan- tum mechanics. The engineer of the mid-2lst century will be as different &om his 20th century counterpart as the latter differs from a 19th century ironmaster, a mechanic in

an 18th century coal mine, a 15th century bell founder or an engineer-solher in the Imperial Roman Army It wciuld be unjust to claim that those who come later are better engineers than those in earlier times. All are engineers but they differ in that they work with technology which changes its nature from age to age, and this transfornis engineers themselves. In some ways their role does not change as in each age the engineer serves a variety of sociopolitical, military-industrial complexes as senior executive, a duty discharged since Antiquity.

Fig. 6 The ‘Rocket‘ locomotive, 1829 (replica). The ‘Rocket‘ locomotive of 1829 and the long-length wrought- iron rail of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, opened in 1830, demonstrated a machine- ensemble full of long-term development potential. This became the prime component of the steam railway system, which was the main strategic industry between 1830 and 1880 (Photo: Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library)

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Fig. 7 Ferranti's Deptford power station, 1890 (model). The electricity generating station became the symbol of a new technology which demanded a greatly advanced mathematical analysis of components, systems and interacting networks. It provided energy in a form which made possible the mass production of artefacts to a previously inconceivable degree of accuracy, which in turn enabled new kinds of technology to be created (Photo: Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library)

In the post-Newcoinen phase of niechanised- industrial developnient, the first two epochs were dominated to a marked extent by Great Britain. This was because the change in the nature of the strategic technologies between the first and second period was not as marked as that between the second and third and between later periods. The steam railway, steam ships and steel works evolved out of the technology of steam engines, iron manufacture and coal mining, which donlinated the first era. This enabled Britain to keep the lead built up in the 18th century, which owed much to a near-monopoly of steaiii-engine expertise which kept the country in first place through the first half of the 19th century But the nature of strategic technology changed between I880 and 1900, when electrical engineering and industrial chemistry represented the new exemplars. These did not evolve gradually out ofprevious technics but were created by scientific research, in an industrial context, which drew on discoveries and solutions to problems which required rapid developments in rnatheniatics, physics, materials science, conceptual apparatus and production methods. They required a new kind of engineer, manager and workman. The new engineering, represented by electrical engin- eering and industrial chemistry, was followed by wireless telegraphy, aviation and motor transport. Britain lost initiative in this third era, which was dominated more by Germany and the United States. Change points between eras, when new strategic technologies arise, provide opportunities for well organised

industrial states to become leaders in global econoniic growth, using new technologies as the vehicle for advancement. The rise of modern Japan is an obvious example.

The changing nature of engineering

The nature of engineering has always changed, but now the transformation of the standards-setting technics is so radical and rapid that it requires a new conceptual apparatus for defining, describing and analysing the innovative systems of present tinies and for interpreting what they do. This has happened before. Today, when the pace of change has accelerated,

Fig. 8 GEC-Alsthom power module for 'Eurostar' trains. This module, manufactured at Trafford Park, Manchester, typifies current best practice in heavy industries established before the Great War of 1914-1918 (Courtesy of GEC-Marconi)

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engineers working in the most advanced departments of eiigiiiecring are conceriied with consciousness, perception a i d the ontological status of the perceiver and perceived. A considerable degree of philosophical analysis md a technical understanding of cognition, neui-oscience arid intelligence will be needed to grasp the developinelits now being discussed-some of which are in being.

For cxaniple, consider the work being done by Prof. J. 0. Gray, who directs research into advanced robotics at Salhrd University This work involves engineering systems which enable the operator to simulate niovenient through perceived and sensed ‘imaginary eiivii-onincnts’. The tei-in ‘iiiiagiiiary’ is open to criticism: ‘illusory’ or ‘simulated’ would be better adjectives. The simulated surfaces can be seen and touched. Such experiments and experiences raise questions concerning the ontological status of percepts, concepts, mental constructs, visual images, sensations and ‘actual’ entities and how definition and recognition is to be carried through and validated. Philosophical niethods, once associated with theology, psychology or abstract scicnce, need to be used if engineering design is to be competently executed. In the Marclion Lecture, delivercd a t the University of Newcastle- ~ipoii-Tyiic in October 19’94, T. McAvoy, Professor of

Chemical Engineering in the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland, discussed whether useful engineering algorithms can be framed after examining how the brain fLinctions. He coiisidered the processing of information in the olefactory system and reviewed neural network systems, including those based on the inodel of a chaotic oscillator able to change states very rapidly when stimulated by an input. The work of Professor Cochrane’s team at the British Telecommunications research laboratories a t Martleshani Heath, Suffolk suggests that early in the 21st century it may be possible to interface silicon chips with the human brain, perhaps by developing the equivalent of ncrvc cndings on tlic chips. If this were possible, the carbon-based memory systems of the biological brains which have evolved on earth could be linked to the silicon-based system of information technology The capacity of the human brain might then be considerably increased by the memories and abilities of advanced computer systems to such an extent as to mark a change in the nature of manland amounting to a &continuity in evolutionary progress and the advent of a radically new biotechnical ensemble. The psychological, social and cultural difficulties in accoinniodating this expansion of mental powers, which would transform all concepts of what

Fig. 9 microelectronics, information technology and network theory help to analyse and model the working of the cerebellum (From P. M . Churchland, ‘Matter and consciousness’, Bradford/MIT Press, 1988. 0 MIT Press, 1988)

Biological-microelectric model of section of the cerebellum. Concepts developed in biochemistry, neuroscience,

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Man is, would be iniiiiense and the coriseqiieiices would be literally all-traiisforniing. If iiitei-linking brains through inforniation networks beconics possible, this will question existing cc’ncepts of individuality, consciousiiess and personality. Quantum (digital) switchi1i;g i s another field where fundaineiital physics, philosophy of science and advar-ced tech- nology come together.

If these developments do take place, they will change the make-up of engineering and other Iprofessioris which were estakdished and grew in epochs shaped by strategic technology of a quite different nature. The traditions coming together to create the engineering of the next century will come from disciplines which today ,ire classified under technology, niedicinc, computer science, biology aiid electrical engineering, to name but a few (Fig. 9). The rapid rate of chaiige is taking systems through many stages of evolution within a few years, s o that the historian will findl his work focused on events in the recent past, as he aids a design teain working on a contemporary problem. Historians will contribute greatly to innovation analysis in the near future. The transformation of engineering will require :an analytical ‘internalist’ history of engineering, integrated with a philosophy of engiiiecring (directed to solving engineering problems.

Concl iision

The changes in the nature of strategic engiiieeriiig require changes in the way eiigiriecring is defined, described, analysed, interpreted and realised. The implications for professional organisation and for education and training are great md the time has coiiie to organise link:; between philosophers of science, historians of engineering, innovation analyts and the engineers creatiiijg the new sy5teiiis to provide the co- orcbnated skills required to maintain eiigiiieering progress and to reorganise educatioii aiid training. The changes will enhance the central, creative role of engineering iii ciilture and will reveal the mistake of Newman, Arnold and their followers who ruled out engineering as an enterprise through which mlighten- inent could Ellid expression. They portrayed all coiiiiiiei-ce as narrow, greedy and hostile to thc higher activities of mind and coiideiiiiied engineers by association. Engineering was not regarded as a vehicle for elevating the mind and for cultivatiiig those values \vhich an enlightened civilisation needed. This cannot be argued today when engineering is traosforniiiig itself and i s syntliesising science, philosophy, critical analysis .md innovation studies. Strategic engincering is filling the enlightening, educative and 8culturally- creative roles once enjoyed by classical studies, theology, philosophy and history iii former periods because it does .what these disciplines did, and still do: it integrates several methods for gaini tig insight into the nature of things and makes radically new disclosures of man, nature, technology, inclustry arid culture.

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MATHIAS, I!: ‘The first industrial nation; ail ecoiioiiiic history of l3rit‘iiii 1700-1914’ (Methuen, 1983, 1963) VON TUNZELMANN, (S. N.: ‘Steam power aiid British iridiistrialisatioii to 1860’ (Clarendoii, OxFord, 1978) SIMMONS, J.: ‘The I s 111 England arid Wales 1830-1 91 4, Vol. 1’ (Leicester University Press, 1978) I’EILKIN, H: ‘The age of the railway’ (Koutledge Kegan

UOWEI<S, U,: ‘A history of electric light and power’ (Peter l’crcgririus/IEE, London, ’I 982) HUGHES, T. P: ‘Networks of power: electrification of Wcstcrii Society’ Uohri Hopkiiis Press, Baltimore, 1083) KRANZBERG, M., md I’UILSELL, C.: ‘Technology iii western civilisation’, 2 vols. (Oxford University Press, 1967). Vol. 2 coiitains a good review of 20th century industry nnd iiiass production, aiid automation.

1869)

1071)

1083)

l~ecelllber 1979, pp.23-26

(SIX&/L), 1095/2, 13, pp.108-138

l’lIl31., 1977)

1 009)

P‘lLIl, 1970)

0 IEE. IO96

Dr. J I~ i f i is with the School of Engineering and Advanced Techiidogy, University of Sunderland, Edinburgh Iluilding, Chester Road, Sunderland, SP.1 3SD, UK.

Thii p q e r 19 a $horteiied, edited version o f an address ‘The n‘iture of engiiieeriiig’ read before the IEE at SavoV Place, London, oii 22nd February 1995

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