Engineering: From Pyramids to Artificial Intelligence!

Engineering is our Oldest Forerunner:  From 3000 BCE to 2025 CE

Science can create new knowledge, but Applied Science & Engineering are required to convert new knowledge into new pharmaceuticals, new rockets, new bridges, ships, solar panels, fabrics, websites like the one you are now reading, and everything else we humans use whenever we act as Agents of Nature’s Continuing Creation. Engineering is a major forerunner and a critically important force behind Nature’s Continuing Creation.  

Engineering began when the first human figured out how to tear a limb from a tree and use it as a club, and how to sharpen the edge of a rock and use it as a knife. The first Egyptian pyramid was constructed by King Zoser (or Djoser) around 2700 BCE, and it was primitive compared to the smooth-sided Egyptian pyramids built centuries later, utilizing increased engineering expertise. 

Yet, even today, while Engineering uses science and mathematics, there is still a major role for creative vision, common sense, rules of thumb, and trial and error.  Thomas Edison tried scores of filaments in his light bulb until he finally found one (carbonized bamboo fiber) that worked. (See our Essay, The Processes of Evolution – in Biology, Culture, & Technology 

  The King Zosar (Djoser) Pyramid — 2700 BCE   

One of the most important references that J.X. Mason used in writing this book on Nature’s Continuing Creation is Professor Adrian Bejan‘s book, Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organizations. (Written with J. Peder Zane, Anchor Books, 2011.)  Dr. Bejan is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke University.)  Dr. Bejan tells us that when a moderate, continual flow of energy meets a receptive collection of varied elements and minerals, then patterned structures of increasing complexity will emerge over time. Each new iteration will enable a more efficient flow of energy.