Why are engineers so unloved? Samuel Florman, an American civil engineer, has come up with some answers in The Existential Pleasures of Engineering (Souvenir Press, £10.99, ISBN 0 285 63287 6). The engineer, he says, is seen as the archetypal technologist in an era when “technology’ is a word of evil implication, identified with weaponry; greed and environmental degradation. Nothing new there. But Florman’s response, first published in 1976 and now re-issued, goes on to explore the challenging compromises, and compromising challenges, that confront the profession every day. Not bad thinking – for an engineer.
More from 51¶¯Âþ
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending 51¶¯Âþ articles
1
Mathematicians stunned by AI's biggest breakthrough in mathematics yet
2
Photos reveal unexpected details from the world's first atomic test
3
How I used psychology to come back from the worst year of my life
4
The Selfish Gene at 50: Why Dawkins’s evolution classic still holds up
5
The distant world that is our best hope of finding alien life
6
Epic dreaming is leaving people exhausted and distressed
7
The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away
8
We may finally know why dinosaurs like T. rex evolved tiny arms
9
Putting CO2 into rocks and getting hydrogen out is climate double win
10
Colossal claims an artificial eggshell will help it bring back the moa
