ON ENGINEERS
ABSTRACT
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This article is addressed to
young engineers who are troubled by their profession and are seeking
alternatives. The article attempts at an historical understanding of
the profession and its destructive character. Then it offers a
critique and explores positive alternatives for the profession. It
ends with giving a few examples from Indian engineers today who are
in fact practising alternatives.
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Engineers don't win Nobel
prizes.
Shreekumar
I belong to the most
rapacious predator that stalked the Earth -humans, and to a net
destructive discipline-engineering, that has to take more than a fair
share of the responsibility for bringing the Earth and human society
to a tipping point.
Sagar Dhara
Both Shreekumar and Sagar Dhara
are some of the most politically conscious thinking engineers that I
have known. They have impressive records but I won't embarrass them
by talking about it.
Between these two statements
there is a range of meanings and nuances which cover a description
and critique of engineers and engineering as a profession. I propose
to start with these statements and arrive at a workable definition
and critique.
The first thing to note is that
both the statements carry negative connotations about engineers.
Engineers are not scientists
Shreekumar is saying that
engineers are not good scientists. In fact there has been only one
engineer who did win the Nobel Prize. It was the Soviet
engineer/scientist Peter Kapitsa (1894 -1984). But he won it as a
physicist. He had worked with Ernest Rutherford in the Cavendish
Laboratory in Cambridge. In 1978, Kapitsa won the Nobel Prize in
Physics for the work in low temperature physics that he did about
1937.
However for a real engineer who
was a scientist the pride of place must to go to J. W. Gibbs (1839 –
1903), one of the greatest scientists of the 19th century.
In 1863, Gibbs was awarded the first Ph. D. in engineering in the USA
from the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale for a thesis entitled On
the Form of the
Teeth of Wheels in
Spur Gearing. But there was no Nobel Prize
in his days. However, in 1901, Gibbs was awarded the highest possible
honour granted by the international scientific community of his day,
granted to only one scientist each year: the Copley Medal of the
Royal Society of London, for his greatest contribution of being "the
first to apply the
second law of
thermodynamics to the
exhaustive discussion of
the relation between
chemical, electrical, and
thermal energy and capacity
for external work."
There are many engineers who in
fact are good scientists (including Shreekumar himself) but they are
on the whole exceptions and what Shreekumar says is by and large
true. Engineers are mostly interested in immediate results and rarely
bother about the science of it. If they had bothered about it, as
Shreekumar shows in his writings on 'Thermodynamics and
Sustainability', they would have been aware of the larger costs,
particularly cost to the environment. They would also have thought
about the inadvisability of many of their 'bright' ideas. In fact the
key words for engineers are 'being smart' and the 'thrill' of it!
But what is the difference
between a scientist and an engineer? A working definition can be that
engineering is applied science. Science is 'uninterested' enquiry,
knowledge for knowledge's sake. When did the engineer appear? When
did science get together with technology? There have always been
exceptional individuals who combined pure enquiry with practical
application-like Leonardo Da Vinci. There is also a case that many
'great' people claimed credit for work done by the artisans. In the
play 'Galileo' by Bertolt Brecht it is shown that while Galileo was
showing off his telescope to the aristocracy, it was sold as a toy in
the streets of Rome!
But on the whole engineers are a
relatively new breed. They are products of capitalism and democracy.
How Come?
Historically science was
developed by people of leisure-aristocracy and priests. Technology
was developed by artisans on the basis of their long and continuous
association with tools and equipment. Capitalism brought a demand for
educated working class and democracy made science education
accessible to all citizens. Technical institutes and later
technological universities came into being. Children of the artisans
and working class came to know the laws of science - particularly
mechanics and hydraulics. Later chemistry and electricity got
introduced. Thus the modern engineer was born. They were in great
demand by the industry and their education and careers were guided by
the demands of the industry.
Now the industry is guided by the
return on investment. New technology often gave greater productivity.
Very often workers' protest against horrible conditions, compensation
paid to the injured or dead workers gave impetus to new technology.
Engineers were also asked to design machines and work places to get
greater productivity from the workers. Thus the science and
technology of ergonomics was born. In engineering design it is very
often asked, 'if we gain by this improvement, where do we lose?'
Trade-offs is a common discussion topic, but never do engineers
discuss the increased load on the environment. Dumping your losses on
the environment is the unwritten law. Environment is considered free
and it is assumed that it is 'an infinite source and an infinite
sink'.
Engineers are tools of
capitalism to exploit nature and human beings
Dhara's description says a lot
about humans as specie and their increased role as predators due to
engineers in the last two hundred years. Human species has for a long
time changed its environment to suit itself more than any other
species. This however reached a very high level with capitalism and
access to 'cheap' fossil fuel. They have destroyed vast stretches of
forests, grassland and wetland and brought these areas under
cultivation. This has had an effect on destroying eco systems and
endangering, and in some cases even leading to extinction, a large
number of species within a very short period of time. This
agriculture also increased the human population seven folds. Other
developments in consumerism led per capita consumption to several
times higher and have led to resource constraints. It has increased
greenhouse gases leading to global warming which can endanger all
life on earth. The era of 'infinite source and infinite sink' is
over.
The Manhattan Project
The greatest travesty of science
and engineering is of course the Manhattan Project - the secret
project to make the atom bomb in the 1940s by the United States. Here
to their eternal shame the greatest minds of science and engineers
got together to make the worst weapon in the world - the atomic bomb.
What is even more horrifying is that the top leaders of the project
agreed to test it on innocent civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
Japan when it was not even needed to win the war!
The sad fact is that even after
this shameful event engineers continued to develop atom and hydrogen
bombs and design and test missiles which can drop these bombs
thousands of miles away, kill and maim hundreds of thousands of
people within minutes! They also developed a large variety of weapons
of mass destruction which go under the innocuous name 'Chemical and
Biological Warfare'.
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
The saving grace of the Manhattan
project is the Pugwash Conference and the Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists. In essence it was an apology to the world by many
important scientists (and hopefully engineers) about their
involvement in the project. There is the Pugwash clock which tells us
how many minutes we are away from a global mutual destruction.
Usually it is around 5-6 minutes but it moves up when a political
crisis at a world scale develops.
The Bulletin is a monthly journal
and recently it has become an online journal and is no longer
printed. The journal's editorial board invariably has a few Nobel
Laureates and Einstein was one of its founder editors. The journal
carries articles about destructive science and engineering projects
in every field. For example it even carried an article on how
unscientific city's central sewage systems are! But the tragedy is
that hardly any engineer knows even the existence of this journal let
alone be inspired by it.
A History of Protest
The devastation caused by
capitalism evoked protests not only from the victims - 'the exploited
and oppressed' classes, but also from enlightened people from all
sections of society, including engineers and scientists. Predictably
it first came from those fields that are closest to life. From
naturalists, many of whom had background in biological sciences and
forestry, from agriculture scientists and from town planners! In the
Indian context Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has been leading
in crying 'fowl' of many destructive projects. Albert Howard, author
of 'An Agricultural Testament' and father of modern organic farming,
worked in India during the 20s and 30s, was a botanist and gave a
powerful critique of chemical agriculture. Patrick Geddes who worked
in India during 1915-1919, carried out some 60 town planning
exercises and gave a critique of engineer led town planning exercise
which ignored the human beings living in the towns.
As we have seen above, after the
Second World War and the atomic bomb many scientists and engineers
started questioning their profession. Einstein maintained that a
scientist is responsible for his actions and cannot hide behind
government policies. So he publicly apologised for his role in the
bomb and started the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Today there is a
flood of engineers and scientists who are opposed to big hydraulic
dams, coal based power plants, nuclear power plants, polluting
chemical plants and host of other destructive aspects of capitalism.
However, the mainstream media is controlled by the capitalists and
these scientists and engineers do not get the exposure to the general
public. They get known mainly by their work with the grassroots
movements of protests, through alternative journals and publications
and now through the internet. Increasingly, grassroots movements of
protests by farmers and other poor people whose livelihoods are
endangered by these projects are seeking and getting support by many
environmentalists, engineers and scientists.
What can an engineer do today?
The essay is addressed to young
engineers who are troubled by their profession and are seeking
alternatives. What is an alternative? Many people think that solar,
mini hydro power projects or pedal power and other appropriate
technology projects are the alternatives. Yes, they certainly can be
components of an alternative system, but it is the present system
itself that is at fault and plugging with a few softer alternatives
is not enough. One has to work towards changing the whole system.
However to do so one has to
change the mind-set which sees nature as meant for 'conquering' and
for 'exploitation'. This has resulted in overexploitation of nature
and human being so much that the system has become unsustainable and
is on the verge of collapse. The focus of an alternative system would
be restoring the ecosystem, reduce our consumption and work towards
equality. How does one go about it?
To begin with, we must begin with
ourselves. Our life style and our education is already a big load on
the environment and on poor people. But our awareness about this is
very superficial. It is not a driving force for our life choices and
actions. We have to begin by learning about ourselves and about our
society.
Some people think that we can
build our capacities for change by further studying -s ay by getting
a degree in sustainable development. While learning is always
welcome, in fact it is a lifelong process; another stint at a
university may not be the best course. It continues to increase our
load on the environment and on poor. It is more so if we go abroad
where typical costs are Rs. 20 Lakhs. It does not matter whether we
get a scholarship, our parent pay for it or we take a loan. We will
continue to lead an elite existence. Then after finishing the course
we will have to take up a job to pay back the loan that will put us
back in the same life style and similar peer group. We can end up
spending 5 years in this.
Nor does it teach the lessons we
want to learn. Most prestigious universities teach us to become
professional allies of the ruling class and they instil a value
system in our thinking. If we want to do anything meaningful for the
people we have to go through a long unlearning process and often it
is not complete unlearning. Vestiges of ruling class attitudes and
ideology remain. So why all this Kolavari di?
For real learning we have to go
to the people directly. If you do want to read a book, the best I can
recommend is 'My Universities' by Maxim Gorky in which he describes
his learning through wandering all over Russia. Secondly if you do
want to go through a formal learning course, then may be an online
distance education course would serve the purpose. It will give you
some book learning at a fairly low cost and will still give enough
time to learn directly from people.
How do we learn from people? It
is not that we have not come across poor people in our lives. But we
are governed by our background and our prejudices and we are not able
to learn much. For this we have to go to people's movement,
preferably through or with a mentor who will help us.
There are a variety of people's
movements going on. There are regional and ethnic movements like
those in Kashmir, North East India, and there are poor people's and
Tribals' movements in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and West Bengal
that have significant Maoist involvement. There are trade union
movements both in the organised sectors and newer sectors like NREGA
workers' trade unions. One can get mentors in all these fields and
there is a lot to learn there - both about oneself and about how the
Indian society workers. You will also come across other issues like
gender and caste in these struggles. Then there are struggles against
specific anti people large projects-like large dams, coal based and
nuclear power plants, chemical plants, SEZs and so on. These combine
poor people’s struggle and environmental issues. There are
movements about wild life conservation and preventing cruelty to
animals. These are mainly led by NGOs but one can learn a lot there.
There are also enough books and films on all these issues.
It is not necessary to study all
these in one go. A selection of them according to one's inclination
and opportunities will suffice. One can get involved for a longer
periods in any one of them.
Then there is a whole range of
activities for building alternatives. Education and health care takes
the bulk of these, but for engineers these are not so attractive.
Restoring eco systems is the main agenda for this century and here
there is a lot of scope for engineers. The biggest and most urgent
area is water (not energy as many engineers would tend to think).
Without water no life is possible and water is the biggest scarcity
facing mankind. Water harvesting implies a host of activities - from
roof top rain water harvesting to water shed management and restoring
our forests. This is a huge agenda and it alone can give meaningful
work to all of us. Other areas of priority are food, fuel (for
cooking), fodder, transport (pedal power and draught animals) and
waste management.
So there is a lot going on and if
one gives say about three years to learn and choose, one can firmly
join the alternative movement somewhere or the other. In these three
years one need spend only a fraction of the money involved in any
university course and learn a lot more. This learning is through
travel, stay and participation at the field level, meeting some of
the most experienced activists and from books, alternative journals
and films. Also one will be part of a different peer group of young
people and this will strengthen one's convictions.
In the next section we will
introduce some of the institution/organisations and engineers who are
practising alternatives.
Help Available
Below we are giving names of few
institutions/organisations and individual engineers, who are
practising alternatives. You can contact them and learn more about
how to proceed. Some of you may say that most of these individuals
have graduated from prestigious institutions. While it tends to add
credibly to the list, one may ask, 'It is alright for 'them' to
choose - they have the confidence and choice. But we don't have!' I
have no good answer to that. All I can say is that when they did
there were no takers for the alternatives, whereas today due to the
crisis, many more avenues are open for the alternatives and there is
room for more and for variety.
These are the names of the
institutions and engineers. Almost all the engineers are above 50
years many even above 60 years. So they have at least 20-30 years of
experience.
- Arvind Gupta, IIT, Kanpur, Located at Pune,"arvind gupta" <arvindguptatoys@gmail.com>, Scientific toys.
- Delhi Platform, Arun Bidani, Located at Delhi, "Arun Bidani" <bidani.arun@gmail.com> Supports political struggles.
- Dinesh Mishra - Civil Engg., IIT, Kharagpur, 1967, located at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand "Dinesh Kumar Mishra" <mishradk@sify.com> Worked on rivers of North Bihar
- Cerana Foundation, Sagar Dhara (1951- ) Mechanical engg. IIT, Mumbai, Located at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. Email: sagdhara@gmail.com Areas of interest are industrial pollution, energy.
- "Manthan.Shripad@gmail.com" <Manthan.Shripad@gmail.com> Located at Badwani, M. P. Worked many years with NBA.
- Dams, Rivers & People, Himanshu Thakkar IIT, Mumbai Located at 86-D, AD Block, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi 110 088. Email: cwaterp@vsnl.com
- Kalpana Mehta, IIT, Kanpur, Aeronautical Engg. Located at New Delhi "Kalpana Mehta" <kalpanaindu@hotmail.com> Women and health issues
- LOCOST (Alternative pharmaceuticals) S. Srinivasan (-) Physicist, IIT, Kharagpur, IIM, Bangalore, Located at Baroda. Email: "SahajBRC Gmail" <sahajbrc@gmail.com>
- Madhu Sarin, School of Architecture, Chandigarh and London. Located at Chandigarh. Madhu Sarin <msarin@sify.com>Town planning, forest bill and tribal’s' struggle for forest rights
- MAN-Mysore Amateur Naturalists, Manu K. - National Institute of Engineering, Mysore Located at Mysore. Known for his work on captive care of abanded Pelicans chicks in a pen at Kukrebellur, near Bangalore. Phone: +91 98863 83793 and +91 81059 00631
- Mohan Mani, IIT Chennai, IIM, Kolkata, Located at Bangalore, "workers blr" <workersblr@yahoo.co.in>, Action research with trade unions
- Shreekumar (1959- ) Chemical Engg. NIT, Suratkal, 1981, Ph.D. IISc, Bangalore (1996), worked in ONGC for 6 years. Located in Udupi district Karnataka. Email: shreeudp@gmail.com Phone 08258 205340 Sustainabile living, organic farming, thermodynamics and sustainability
- Prayas, N. Sreekumar IIT, Mumbai, Located at Hyderabad "Sreekumar N" <sreekumar@prayaspune.org> Prayas works in the field of critical assessment of our energy needs.
- Suresh Kosaraju M. Sc Agriculture, Pantnagar University. Located at Hyderabad. "Suresh Kosaraju" <kosaraju.suresh@gmail.com>.Interested in organic farming, seeds, translation and publications, education and children's literature in Telugu.
- Rahul Banerjee, 74 krishnodayanagar, Khandwa Naka, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India – 452001, cell no: +919425943023, webpage: tp://rahulbanerjee.notlong.com/
blog: http://anar-kali.blogspot.com - T. Vijayendra (1943- ), Electronics and Elec. Comm., IIT, Kharagpur, 1966 Email: t.vijayendra@gmail.com Mobile: +91 94907 05634. Main area of interest is political activism and education of activists.
P.S.
I got some more names:
- Sharad Lele, ATREE, Bangalore
- Alok Agrawal, Narmada Bachao Andolan, Khandawa
- Anand Kapur, Ekjut Sangathana, Pune
- Vinayak Lohani Kolkata
- Ravi Chopra, Dehradun
- Mr. Gon, Solar and gasifier projects, Sinderbans, West Bengal
- Harish Hande, Solar Lighting
Obviously there are many more. I
will not be surprised if the list exceeds 100. The purpose of the
article however, is served, even by this limited number.
Words: 3321
25. 05. 2012
Mobile: +91 94907 05634
