Comments on: Engineering Vision

By: Kristine

Kristine — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:08:26 +0000

MAC, what you describe is a classic problem. Non-scientists want and need to understand what it is scientists do, but scientists like doing stuff, not talking about it. If you had to look up Terryl Givens, then clearly you are missing some essential knowledge for participating in the proposed conversation, just as, as you say, the non-scientists or theoreticians who are participating are missing the essential knowledge of applied engineering principles in which you are an expert.

There are two possibilities: you can pronounce the conference hokey and I can be snide about the syntax of your comment, or we could be patient with each other’s deficiencies and try to learn something.

By: Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:04:15 +0000

. . . and, believe it or not, one of the practicing engineers on the panel is even an expert on irrigation (nod to John’s comment #4)!

By: ukitect

ukitect — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 01:48:26 +0000

One of the participants is an architect. There are both academics and practicing engineers on the panel, including NASA folks.

By: TonyD

TonyD — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:22:19 +0000

I can think of at least a couple of things illuminated by engineering:

1) Many people insist on a single truth.(Just look thorough the many posts on this site.)
I’ve seen both Sun and SGI demo their virtual reality goggles which create virtual 3D worlds where you can interact with objects. Surely God can do this too.
There is certainly no reason why one person has to experience the same reality as the next. I think of the JS quote “that which is right under one circumstance…is wrong in another…” (I’m not saying this interpretation of that quote is correct.)

2) Many people denigrate things they can’t prove.
The sophisticated Scientists that I’ve met realize that concepts of proof such as “double blind studies” and “repeatability” are of limited utility. Many phenomenon are not repeatable and many are not measurable in any meaningful way. We simply have very primitive measuring tools. It could be very useful to help people understand the constraints of “proof”.

Anyway, I would enjoy seeing both those subjects explored in the context of Mormon understanding.

By: lamonte

lamonte — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:39:26 +0000

MAC – Your comment is exactly what I mean by the difference between architects and engineers. You guys are sooooo into the logic and reason of things and not enough into imagining what might be possible.

By: MAC

MAC — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:19:15 +0000

I would be interested to know what percentage of the participants are from academia and what percentage are actually working engineers.

As a multiple degreed engineer, who has spent their most of their career in the field, this comes off as pretty hokey.

I looked up Terryl Givens CV and his degrees are in Literature and Intellectual History (which I am almost proud to admit I had to confirm the implied definition). What topics does his keynote lecture cover?

I have a hard time imagining how being an engineer would provide anything more than tangential special knowledge of any of the mentioned topics.

The fact that so many of the topics mentioned are fringe/wannabe-protoscience just aggravates my skepticism. A D&D session with an academic seal of approval.

My engineering analysis, a feel good nerd session with a net present value of 0.

By: Steve Evans

Steve Evans — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:22:09 +0000

Every week is engineers’ week.

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:20:19 +0000

If this conference had been scheduled two weeks earlier, it could have been part of National Engineers’ Week. Maybe it’s better this way; the engineering happiness stretches out more.

By: Randall

Randall — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:09:16 +0000

ADVISORY:

Bring your own Mountain Dew and bandwidth to the conference.

Repeat, Bring your own Mountain Dew and bandwidth to the conference.

By: John Mansfield

John Mansfield — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:01:08 +0000

Nothing about irrigation?!? Maybe that comes under the paradisiacal Earth and technical advancement leading into the millennium.