> In the west, engineering doesn't attract those types. In other countries where its the quickest way to make buck? Hell yeah!
This is an excellent counterpoint. You're totally right that in many countries (former communist countries, particularly, as you say), STEM educated elites often were the top officials.
However, it doesn't detract from my point that in this country, we would benefit from more scientists and engineers in government.
> I think we need a bigger guild like organization with a lobby. Not some industry sponsored group either.
This may help us with professional issues, but it likely won't help our system of government.
I was thinking an advisory lobby like the AMA. Some respected organization that can issue statements others can point to as sane beliefs back by many in the industry.
Take this as a warning - I think your idea is too late.
I've been watching the various attempts at improving education in America and it smells
Exactly like what india/china have.
There's many details but broadly there's 1 major forces that shape this
economics-jobs
1) as normal jobs dry up/stop paying a good wage, it puts a downward pressure on education in things like politics/English/arts/philosophy and so on. This means people shift to the only hope left - STEM
Talking to people on forums from America who were exposed to multiple streams (and not just STEM) I can say you guys have historically enjoyed a deep insulation/resilience to stupid ideas/half baked ideas. Because you had people with diverse information, you could always stop a neophyte engineer from executing a shortest path solution with costs not apparent to engineers.
Once you have no jobs left for those people, parents will force their kids into the only options left.
This saturates the system with posers - people who pretend to like engineering but would rather be psychologists, painters, marketers or any non technical job.
This overloads and blows the fuses in the higher education application process, which forces them to adapt by adding more criteria and stricter criteria to get in.
The kinds of engineers you produce tomorrow are going to be unconcerned with being engineers. They are engineers to finish their first job stint and get an MBA.
Ethics become a word and a course you waste your time on, because if ethics mattered you wouldn't be an engineer in the first place.
Any system proposed needs to build with this in mind. I think simply making it useful to have multi discipline knowledge will be a way to maintain Your cultural resistance.
Although admittedly in america, our lack of stem focus partially comes from the cult of money. Brilliant would be scientists and inventors are financially pushed towards the business, law, & finance fields.
It helps keep keep engineering well paid which is nice....but I suspect we've could have advanced much further if half the traders and quants on Wall Street were in an innovation oriented field.
Reminds me of a guy from a top comp science program getting paid to be basically a secretary in a finance firm.
This is an excellent counterpoint. You're totally right that in many countries (former communist countries, particularly, as you say), STEM educated elites often were the top officials.
However, it doesn't detract from my point that in this country, we would benefit from more scientists and engineers in government.
> I think we need a bigger guild like organization with a lobby. Not some industry sponsored group either.
This may help us with professional issues, but it likely won't help our system of government.
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