Future Shock

Ok so this has nothing to do with Shaunak's post by the same title nor with the book by Alvin Toffler. It's just that I couldn't think of a better (and original ;) ) title for this post.

The "future shock" I'm referring to has got to do with engineers.

Have you ever pondered about the future of engineering? I mean have you ever given it a thought as to whether say 20 years down the line, what an engineer's role would be?

Well here are some of my thoughts.
Actually I'd been thinking on these lines for some time now. It started off with an article I read in the IEEE Spectrum. Those thoughts precipitated to this blog, with an article I read today in The Indian Express: The Mother Of All Softwares.

The article in IEEE Spectrum spoke of a time in the engineering industry, when engineers would be relaced by software packages. Not too difficult to imagine actually, considering the fact that almost 50-60% of today's practicing engineers are only sort of consultants, tweaking long established designs to suit the conditions. Imagine a software package that'll take in specifications, and lay out the entire detailed design! What better than a package (a one time investment) like this, rather than a costly, time consuming and error prone human engineer? Critics may comment that one would still need "the human touch", but while I don't agree with that (nor do I want to get into an argument - maybe I'll write another post), even in such a (grossly optimistic) senario, one has to admit that the requirement for engineers would dwindle. In any case, such an engineering job would definitely be boring, frustraing offering virtually no creativity.

I'd say that an engineer who's doing such things is basically going to be obsolete - jobless. Move over to software, and the article in the Indian Express will confirm your worst fears - there's already a software out there to automate programming. Be assured that in the next 20 years or so, we'll have a really well done package to handle even the most complex of coding tasks.

In essence, if you're an engineer doing mundane things, working up old designs, without any creativity or originality, then the future's your highway to extinction.

Methinks that the future engineer (aka an engineer who's not extinct - not jobless) is going to fall under these 3 major categories:

1. The "human touch" engineer (arguable but I'm willing to yield for the moment)
2. The research engineer.
3. The manager engineer.

The first guy is definitely going to be one bored (but perhaps well paid) dude.

The second one, is definely going to be well paid, but a rare creature. He'll be the one who devises new technology, the guy who makes new, pathbreaking designs. I guess the guy who writes The Engineer Softwares would also fall under this category. He'll have to be smart, in touch with the latest research a continuous learner, and above all, a creative and broadminded, thinking person. Most likely, he'll be the invisible force of the new era.

The third guy is gonna be the most common engineer. He's gonna be either the one who takes care of the broad engineering - business related decisions (it's hyphenated for a good reason) or an entrepreneur in the engineering business. He'll be a person who is constantly in touch with technology, creative, and having all the important traits of a good manager. He'll be the palpable, human force.

Well that's my prediction anyway!

Tell me what you think!