Impact of the Engineering Guiding Principles on Humanity

. The Thesis

In a previous article titled “Engineering Guiding Principles”  (EC Journal 10/2024 edition) we started with the following slide:

In that article we stated that there are two main principles that engineers are guided by:

1.     Automate everything, meaning creating technologies, products, processes that will be doing everything on our behalf.

2.     Continuously drive down the cost of everything that we have and do.

We mentioned that by having these two principles in mind at all times we can generate an enormous amount of product, technology, and process ideas – for both the customers and for us internally in the our organizations.

This article will expand on this.

Driving automation to infinity will lead to a dramatic increase of our free time:

Having an unlimited free time means that there is an unlimited time for self-realization:

Driving cost down to zero will lead to creating abundance of everything and for everybody:

Having abundance of everything and for everybody means that we will have reached genuine peace and security (both physical and social):

And with such peace and security, the population of the world will dramatically increase.  This is because the world will become such a beautiful place that you will want to pass it on to as many generations as possible.

So, the humanity formula takes the following shape:

And all this because of engineers working on these two main parameters – automation and cost.

. Appendix

1. Meaning of Automation --> ♾️

There is a long road to full automation.  It will need knowledge and skills to dramatically increase; it needs number of teams and the team sizes to dramatically increase (the MNCs are good examples); it needs inventions and innovations to dramatically increase.

2. Meaning of Cost --> 0

There are many parameters that must be driven to their minimum to reach a zero cost.  Here are some parameters: 

Each one of these parameters need technological innovations by themselves.

3. Meaning of Free Time --> ♾️

And here we come to the most difficult topic – free time.  What to do with free time?

Do we do this?

Or, do we do this?

...

Having infinite free time will mean that we will have infinte time to explore & discover, to create, to invent, to innovate, to read, to write, …

As you can see, free time does not mean to do nothing.  In the contrary, free time means full engagement. But now not as a forced engagement, but as a free choice, as enthusiasm, as natural necessity for self-realization.

As such, free time activity will feed back to automation and cost reduction, but now as an expression of free time.  And this by itself is an infinite loop.  We will never fully reach infinity, but we will get closer to it on every step.

Here is a good quote from Steve Jobs:

For him, work time and free time were the same.  He invented, innovated, designed - all as free time activity.

. Conclusion

We started with this:

And derived the following humanity formula:

Here is everything on one slide:

And finally, it must be mentioned that to deal with free time is a very serious question that humanity must solve since free time will only increase and very quickly (especially that AI will play a dramatic role in automation).  And I think that it will be more a matter of upbringing(воспитание), rather than education (образование) to know what to do with free time. Besides knowing what to do, it will require an enormous amount of self-discipline and self organizing as not to waste this precious free time.  This by iteself will require the development of a strong will power in people.

Would like to finish with this song:

Take a listen. Link.

Lyrics of the song:

I see trees of green

Red roses too

I see them bloom 

For me and you

And I think to myself 

What a wonderful world

I see skies of blue 

And clouds of white

The bright blessed day

The dark sacred night

And I think to myself 

What a wonderful world

The colors of the rainbow 

So pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces 

Of people going by

I see friends shaking hands

Saying, "How do you do?"

They're really saying

I love you

I hear babies cry

I watch them grow

They'll learn much more 

Than I'll ever know

And I think to myself 

What a wonderful world

Yes, I think to myself 

What a wonderful world

Ooh, yes

Automation and cost reduction are fundamental engineering principles.  

As such, engineers have an immediate impact on the future of humanity.

With so many engineers in the EC working with these principles, the future must be very bright.

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