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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (71084)	2/3/2003 4:06:38 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 281500

<engineers are easy to flumux, when you put them in charge of large quantities of illogical people. It will be interesting to see how they perform...> Well, that's the stereotype. I'd say $ill Gates, Irwin Jacobs and a few other engineers aren't particularly easily flummoxed. Scientific, engineering and mathematical thinking is specifically designed to overcome flummoxing by complex systems. I'd bet on engineers before most other people - including scientists and mathematicians [especially the Ted Kaczynski type]. Engineers deal in the art of the possible and are very aware of what happens when the Twin Towers collapse or a Space Shuttle burns up. More of vital importance in the human realm is the emotional interaction among people. The arrogant Europeans miss the point with King George II. I know it's the Yanks who are supposed to be the arrogant ones, but there's no arrogance compared with the arrogance of aristocracy - or more accurately, those who think they are aristocrats. The Euros think him stupid. Well, stupid is as stupid does. He doesn't need to pretend to be Einstein. He has a fleet of advisors. He can hire all the brains he likes. Mostly, he has to make the emotional calls for 300 million people, not to mention 5 billion others too. When he chucks a rock in the pool, it's quite a splash. Engineers are builders, challengers of nature. They aim to mould nature to the human will. Mystics are something different. Education in the Moslem world isn't so oriented towards taming nature. It's primarily to kneel before nature and hope that Allah is merciful today. I'd bet on China, with engineers running it, before Islam. CDMA stands for China Democracy Moves Ahead. Hu and co have arranged for China Unicom to install cdma2000 1xRTT in Shanghai, which is now commercially available. Service started just in time for the Year of the Sheep [Ram or Goat or whichever it is]. That was a significant move. Watch that space. Germany was a land of engineers for a few decades. Now it's a land of social "scientists" [giggle]. The USA was a land of science, engineering, technology and industrialisation. But it's increasingly a service economy of Burger King, gas stations and Hollywood, not to mention government. Because engineers are inherently builders, they are positive people. They are a bit like doctors, who also are out to defeat nature's marauding destruction. They are inherently less inclined to megalomania than others [Dr Mengele notwithstanding]. I am trying to think of an evil engineer. Engineers are not thrilled by destruction. Oh! Of course. Osama is an engineer. A civil one at that. Well, that shows that being an engineer doesn't preclude malevolence. While King George II might not be the brightest light on the Xmas tree, that's not necessarily especially important. More important is the interaction he has with others. Not necessarily in a buddy-buddy light either. It might be in a confrontational situation such as with Osama and Saddam [and Kim Jong Il]. <He basically showed them that he was a "reasonable guy" but that pushing him too far would be detrimental to Chinese interests.> That's quite important I'd say. Mqurice