Written by:
John Hayes
11/7/2008 8:34 PM
I'm in San Francisco this week for the Web 2.0 conference. Its a gathering of Silicon Valley's finest brains, including leaders from yahoo, google, etc. And while some of the activity concerns building superior platforms for computing that will benefit everyone in the world, much of it is trivial. Some of the applications on the iPhone, for example are pretty silly. And I wouldn't mind that there are silly things in the world if it didn't take some of the best brains to make them.
The fundamental power of the platforms that exist on the Internet can be put to great use, like developing ways to deliver clean water to those in need, or figuring out how to make a smarter electricity grid. No doubt there are lots of applications on the iPhone for saving energy and other noble causes. But why are smart engineers enabling people to throw virtual sheep at their friends.
After I wrote these few notes, Al Gore took the microphone and addressed our gathering. He likened the Internet to electricity 100 years ago. He noted that the introduction of electricity had been ushered in with numerous useless gadgets designed to show off what electricity could do. According to Al, that's where we are now with the Internet and we need to get through this "gee whiz" phase as soon as possible. He emphasized that its time to start harnessing the power of the Internet to collaborate on a grand scale to solve global problems in general and global warming in particular. His presentation was poignant and compelling and I’m looking forward to engaging ENGINEERING.com in working towards some solutions.
As always, feel free to post below or contact me directly at jhayes@engineering.com.
John
Tags:
9 comments so far...
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
Engineers and their brain powers have now restricted themselves into developing stuff that sells. Commercialization has crept deep into their core. You have rightly pointed out iPhone and its many apps and as if some of the world's "best brains" have nothing better to do.
By jigyasa on
11/8/2008 12:48 AM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
Yeah! more focus must also be paid on enginnering ethics also. www.eclicks.co.cc
By eclickscocc on
11/8/2008 11:01 PM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
One wonders who is going to pay all these engineers 'solving the world's problems'?
By prost on
11/11/2008 10:17 AM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
Engineers and technically minded people can solve ANY problem they are allowed to focus on... but they cannot focus if the corporations they work for are selling them down the road for the first available dollar that comes into view...
By SDO on
11/11/2008 2:28 PM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
I'm behind this initiative of yours Mr. Hayes. In fact my blogs will reflect the same sentiments. I know the world cannot stop from creating money making ideas but much more time and effort has to be put into finding the solutions that will provide the answers to pollution, waste and energy needs. If we all contribute a small fraction of our time and efforts we can make this happen. I am pretty sure there will be some very imaginative ideas that we can all investigate. Someone will hit upon the right formula somewhere, somehow, at sometime. More focus is needed and we can all do our part. Ideas from someone can sometimes spark iideas with someone else and glorious inventions can come out of it. Lets all try to inspire each other with information, discussions and of course ideas no matter how wierd they might sound to some of us. A huge amount of us have our own computers at home and we can spend just as much time on something that we want and not have to do it at work. Even if you don't have the software on your own computer you have free stuff out there to do it with. Even a sketch pad or SketchUp is free to generate ideas with and there are many others too. We need ideas, conceptualizations and inspiration that we can share together. The clock is running.
By Corporal Willy on
11/11/2008 4:30 PM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
This crap you speak of is very easy to create and seems to add value as they can say the Iphone comes with 100 appzs when 95 of them are about as useful as the virtual sheep toss. The fact is there are only a few things people want to do on a 2 inch screen. Until the engineers overcome this limitation then we are stuck with the same BS on our phones. Not really hard. Microsoft has developed a tiny projector that could in theory be built into a cellphone if people did not insist they be 1 mill. thick and actually look and feel like a phone.
By Taki on
11/14/2008 12:18 AM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
Well unfortunately, when you are the person who is being paid to develop something for someone else, you have to do as you are instructed to do. If all these engineers where independent or freelancers then they would be able to do what they want, but I am also sure they would be paid much less than they want to be. So misguided maybe, but it is not their fault.
By attagirl on
11/15/2008 10:52 AM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
I can be very happy if any engineer is going to invent a green product which could all save us from all the hazards. That will be the invention for life. These iphones and gphones are not going to help us anyway. Because we need a phone to contact others and we have got so many handy applications. Above this will be a waste of resource. May be only rich will buy it. Stop here and try to invent to prevent the world from dying.
By descorpio on
11/19/2008 12:18 AM
|
Re: Engineers are smart but misguided
helo, can any one please help me. I have recently passed my mathematics and physical science with merit from high school and I wish to study civil engineering at the unversity of leeds next year but I cant afford to pay tuition. All I need is donations from anyone who is willing to help.I really need to become a civil engineer. any amount can make a difference. my paypal e-mail adress is michaelgreen87@ymail.com. your contribution will be highly apreciated. thanks.
By mike on
11/22/2008 2:25 PM
|