Rx for obsolescence: Shakespeare, Sophocles, and the Renaissance engineer — All are part of a plea for speaking out for technology

Abstract

If ever innovation and enterprise were required, they are in these days of shrinking energy supplies, critical food and water shortages, failing transportation systems, urban decay, and social upheaval. In the solution of all these problems, the engineer has a role to play, but engineers may not be equal to the task. They may already be obsolescent — not technically inadequate, but socially inadequate.