Making

Abstract

Making fills every aspect of our lives. The products on the supermarket shelves, the art in museums, the cars on roads, and the search engine Google were all made by people. Craft making is a special skill, art speaks to our emotions, and functional art has a dual purpose. An invention is a novel, useful non-obvious idea such as a clockwork radio. Engineering emerged, after the Renaissance, from the separation of art and craft from science and the consequent specialisation needed to cope with our increasing knowledge. Engineering and technology are terms that have become confused. The view from inside the profession is that technology is part of engineering whereas, from outside, the opposite is the case. Technology is associated, in the minds of many, with the application of ‘known’ science through mere technique. Science is dependable only in context and does not represent the absolute truth—it is incomplete. Engineering has to be much more than rote application. Engineers are problem solvers who create theoretical models for a specific purpose and what really matters is the quality of that purpose and of the model to deliver that purpose. A successful model used as if it is true in the messy world of practical reality does not logically imply that it actually is true. The reason is that all sorts of uncertainties and fail-safe design and analytical assumptions are embedded into the context of the model. Problem solving and decision-making loops are prerequisites to creative engineering making.

Think both inside and outside of the box