> In engineering problems, tradeoffs are known Not really. In non trivial projects, you also have to "manage" the unknowns. Viewing engineering projects as com

> In engineering problems, tradeoffs are known Not really. In non trivial projects, you also have to "manage" the unknowns. Viewing engineering projects as completely controlled is a myth; even what we make with actual engineering practices (planes, etc.) fail every so often because of design issues. This is not because of known tradeoff, except if you twist the definition as far as pretending that the lack of infinite study and simulation is a tradeoff. Catastrophic failures often (always?) come from highly non-linear causes, you can think that kind of chaos also leads in other areas, especially among social interaction. Because of the non-linearity, even estimations of failure rates are only really estimations with absolutely no hard bounds. So said non trivial (real) engineering projects actually have to be inserted in the society as a whole, including for example insurances. The (real) engineer also have (a moral obligation) to consider the social impact of their work. In the end, both engineering work and leading a society is reducible to exercising reason to attempt to achieve a goal. The remaining differences are mere details.