"PHYSICS ENVY" AND ENGINEERING DESIGN

Abstract

“Physics envy” is the condition where non-physicists attempt to model their discipline after physics in the hope of gaining credibility. This ailment is not uncommon among engineers and its negative impact is most strongly felt in engineering design. Biology offers some insights into this phenomenon for it, too, suffers from “physics envy” but has the luxury of a strong philosophical base to draw on. Much of what separates engineering and biology from physics can be attributed to a preoccupation with function. Within the paradigm of physics, however, function is a foreign concept. We can ponder the function of a human organ or a mechanical part, but the entities of physics, such as atoms, have no functions, only effects. Function implies the possibility of failure, such as a heart failure or a mechanical breakdown, but atoms never fail; they simply are. Function speaks of systems which cannot be contained within spatiotemporal boundaries, boundaries which physics cannot transgress. “Physics envy” therefore serves to undermine research and practice in engineering design.