Hats Off to Engineers

What projects can we thank civil engineers for?

ahhh, lets see, delays due to road construction....no, ahhh detours,.....no...lets see, theres one here somewhere.

Certainly engineers have made great contributions and then there are some that may not or should have not been released on an unsuspecting public. From a personal point of view, there are things that I can live without which I don't feel have made any contribution to my life. GPS is probably one of them. I've travelled all over this country; relied on free gas station maps and verbal directions and have always gotten to my destination. I still don't own a GPS, nor do I think I need one. It's just another gadget that takes my brain out of the thought and decision making loop. Society is becoming so dependent on such gadgets that we are losing the ability to think. What thought processes we have left are used to dream up new "contributions". The real contributors are those who first laid down the rules by relying on basic math, the slide rule, common sense and keen observation. I would venture to say that the majority of today's new engineers would not be able to function without the pocket calculator.

Hello,

I think you have pointed out very very important thing, the other side of technological progress of human race.

What we are forgetting that human has brain, that is capable of doing wonders, if we have desire for the same.

We are loosing faith on on our own inbuilt thinking / problem solving ability.

Madhav Chowdhary

SWEETechnologies

Pune (India)

What projects can we thank civil engineers for...

Subways. Brilliant design for public transportation. (I want one).

On a mundane level, you can thank civil engineers for hauling your poop away.

If you want your spirit to soar, contemplate a Santiago Calatrava bridge.

Tanks.

Armoured cars.

maintaining weapon systems.

the Cell Phone.

Developing ways to correct engineering mistakes

finding ways to stop oil wells leaking

finding out why planes fall from the sky.

developing more efficient ways to kill each other.

developing ways to stop each other killing each other.

I may be a little cynical yes we make some really good ? things