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 ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ articles
1
Does gravity create reality? A shocking path to a theory of everything
2
The best new science-fiction books of June 2026
3
Unsettling dance piece explores how AI is warping human relationships
4
Glaciers in the 'roof of the world' have suddenly started melting
5
Pancreatic cancer halted by virus injection in three patients
6
We have figured out a new way to send messages into the past
7
Where did the laws of physics come from? I think I've found the answer
8
The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away
9
How a radical new view of life could reveal its origin – and aliens
10
The day quantum computers break the internet
