Quote:
Originally Posted by Ithekro
Engineers get sci-fi representation in most cases. Though from what I understand "Big Bang Theory" likes to have those with doctorates pick on the engineer...because he is not a "doctor".
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If we have to use a completely imaginary fantasy to make engineering at all glamourous, we have a bit of a problem. Also, how often are engineers actually the starring characters in SF? At best they're the supporting characters who build the machines for the "cool" pilots and marines to use. We're lucky if we get a Kira Yamato, who at least
starts as an engineer (even if he never does any engineering past the first episode).
Actually, there was Planetes, which I think is probably the closest thing to an Engineering drama. Most of the main characters in that were fairly close to being Engineers. They had to deal with a lot of mundane mechanical problems and fix them. Something like that would be good.
Anyway, to get back on topic, we do have some social problems today, but I think many of these are down to our society being in a state of extreme flux. We still haven't developed the required cultural attributes to prosper in the new digital world we find ourselves in. Our attitudes are still analog.
For instance, it wasn't so long ago that the general populace thought that everyone on the internet was an anti-social weirdo. Now using the internet is normal. You're an anti-social weirdo if you're
not online.
Many of our devices have put more barriers in place for people to socialise with one another, used to be people routinely chatted with complete strangers for want of anything better to do. This sudden decrease in communications with strangers I think causes a lot of stress, so our society will have to devise new ways to get around this fact. For instance, maybe in the future trains will have "socialisation" carriages where people can go if they want to talk to other people.
Once our culture has caught up with technology, I can see people becoming a lot happier. Before that though, there's going to be a lag time.