Social Utopias and Engineering Design

Abstract

Abstract A paradox of our time is identified: on the one hand – the development of one global system (ecological, technological and social), on the other hand – the still increasing “balkanization” of science. The dynamics of this systems is a source of well-known numerous global problems. Its possibly effective solution needs adequate knowledge about the system. For this reason, counteraction to “balkanization” of science is of great practical importance. And this counteraction should comprise not only development of “transboundary” sciences (such as biochemistry or social psychology) but also establishing and developing links between very distant disciplines. This text is intended as a contribution to linking social and engineering sciences. The notion of design plays the central role in this text. Its meaning in the engineering sciences. The notion of utopia has been chosen as a partial counterpart to the term of engineering design. This notion was defined using a concept of possible world – taken from modal logic. It encompasses two ideas: this of design and that of prediction, It is claimed that we need many utopias and that their plurality is of fundamental importance for protecting us against the threats of utopianism. The paper suggests that social utopias can play a heuristic role in engineering design (particularly in the initial phase of defining technological problems), and – on the other hand – that the theory of engineering design can be supportive for, badly needed, development of methodology of utopias creation.