John, On the subject of engineering blunders, here is the most catastrophic engineering blunder humanity has ever faced. It could make North America uninhabitable. http://www.kurzweilai.net/fukushima-fuel-pool-is-urgent-national-security-issue-for-america-top-threat-facing-humanity?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8179b0de4d-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email
On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 1:42 PM, John Clark <johnkcl...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, May 6, 2012 Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >>>I'm not an engineer. >>>> >>> >>> >> >> I know, that's part of the problem. >>> >> >> > I think it's part of the solution. As the saying goes, if all you have >> is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. >> > > It's far easier to get a reputation as a good philosopher than a good > engineer because you can't fake it. If a engineer is full of shit there is > no way to hide it, the bridge falls down or the laptop catches on fire or > the power grid dies and plunges the nation into darkness and all the world > knows he's a idiot, but a philosopher can hide his ineptitude by saying > things that can never be proved or disproved in his lifetime or expressing > platitudes in pretentious language that sounds much deeper than they really > are or by expressing his personal preferences as if they were universal > truths and not just a matter of taste. > > To keep his job a engineer needs to be right, or at least not dead wrong, > nearly 100% of the time because if he is dead wrong people could quite > literally end up dead, but a philosopher can never be right and still get > tenure. When a engineer makes a blunder it's front page news but when a > philosopher makes a blunder few know or care and he never misses a > paycheck. The engineer has by far the harder job. > > John K Clark > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
