A Matter of Spirit

01/15/2006

Paul Munnis

If you are involved in politics this is a depressing time in history but if you are involved in science and engineering this is the best of all times. This is for the opposite of reasons. Whereas politics is showing a failure of man’s spirit and people are marching to the drums of death and war, both science and engineering are just waltzing along producing huge gains while breakthroughs abound and they come in giant leaps and bounds.

In engineering we see density climbing in both silicon and storage devices. We see huge performance breakthroughs in super computing and we are witnessing giant gains in creating earthquake proof buildings and safer bridges. In science we see physics, chemistry, biology and medical research advancing so quickly that it is impossible to produce current text books. DNA has been understood and now the mapping of the human genome is in rapid progress. Genetic engineering, while elusive, is tantalizingly close. And the queen of all of the sciences, mathematics, is just flourishing as people create math models and simulations of just about everything known in the universe.

We will not provide a survey of all of the breakthroughs for there are far better places to learn about them than here, but we will call attention to the difference in the human spirit required for science and engineering versus the mentality of the war monger and the bad-ass politician who delights in upsetting our civilized society. The first group is adding to the sum total of knowledge for all of mankind and is improving the quality of life while the nationalistic war monger is seeking ways to seize science and engineering knowledge to create more efficient killing machines.

We know the camp that we are the most comfortable in these days and there are no gun barrels or government operatives practicing torture and abuse to be found in that campground. There is a sign at the front that says: “RAMBO’S STAY OUT!”