Engineering isnt simply solving known problems. Research in engineering is working in exactly the situations that he describes: where there are potentially many

Engineering isnt simply solving known problems. Research in engineering is working in exactly the situations that he describes: where there are potentially many unknowns and trying to optimize for some variable, the same as we would in a political situation. The main difference is the inputs and outputs to the system: with a lot of engineering its pieces of hardware + software where as in politics its policy + law.