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The point of engineering is to make something that’s economically viable, not to slap together something that works. Making something that works is easy, making
by revnode 1y ago
The point of engineering is to make something that’s economically viable, not to slap together something that works. Making something that works is easy, making something that works and can be sold at scale is hard.
- waldarbeiter 1y agoIf it would be easy there would already be a car costing a few million that few can afford but that has solved AD. But there isn't.
- revnode 1y agoThere is no market for such a thing. At that price point, you get a personal chauffeur. That’s what rich people do and he can do stuff that a self driving system never can.
- tialaramex 1y agoAnd the rich people who don't want a chauffeur like driving the car. They will buy a $10M car no problem, but they want driving that car to be fun because that's what they were paying for. They don't want you to make the driving more automatic and less interesting.
- uoaei 1y agoThat's not engineering, that's industry. It's important to distinguish the two.
- revnode 1y agoEngineering only exists within industry. Everything else is a hobby.
- uoaei 1y agoThat's simply not true. Engineering can exist outside industry. "Stuff costs money" is not a governing aspect of these kinds of things. FOSS is the obvious counterexample to your absurdly firm stance, but so are many artistic pursuits that use engineering techniques and principles, etc.
- revnode 1y agoIndustry includes FOSS and artistic endeavors, anything that’s done professionally. My intent was to exclude research efforts, which is fundamentally different from engineering, which is a practical concern and not a “get it to just work” concern.
- uoaei 1y agoThat's an interesting question, the question of whether engineering per se is strictly pragmatic. I personally think drawing a hard line between research and engineering is a misstep and relies too heavily on a bureaucratic kind of metaphysics.