Invention and technical development .

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

The time when I was a teenager from early sixties into the seventies was a period of fantastic invention , innovation and technical development . It seemed that hardly a week went by without something new and fascinating coming along . All this stimulus certainly influenced my personal decision to become an engineer and many other young people went into science and engineering careers for similar reasons .

 

As later years rolled by the volume of interesting activity diminished rapidly

and at present seems to have dropped to practically zero .

 

Young people now not only rarely go into science and engineering careers (except when they have little choice) and indeed there seems to be a substantial number of young people that really have no concept of what science and engineering are at all .

 

There is a chicken and egg situation in this in that if there is nothing exiting going on to stimulate young people to go into science and engineering careers then after a few years there are very few clever people in the right places to come up with new innovations.

 

It is not an exact comparison but something similar has happened in the model engineering world where there has not really been anything new to talk about for ages – and this surely can’t be good for the long term future of the hobby .

 

Open ended question : Are there any topics that magazine readers would like to see articles about which are outside the normal range and which they think would stimulate some new directions for the hobby to develop in ??? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 06/03/2011 11:26:40

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

[NilochParticipant @niloch]

iPhones/iPad, Wii, 3D-TV, low energy light bulbs, dental implants, Skype, treatments for Alzheimers etc. etc. I must live on a different planet

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

The real problem is that the public and teachers do not understand or even want to understand that without forms of engineering design, products (via invention and technical development) will not occur here in the UK. It seems easier to just buy what is on offer from somewhere else.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Well standards of living (and therefore wages) across the world will equalise over time (maybe not in my lifetime though).

 

This means the Chinese (and other so-called third world nations) will want higher pay and we may have to start accepting less. As the price of oil continues to rise it will also cost a lot more to ship stuff around the world.

 

So for many reasons, imports are likely to cost more and the steady deflation we’ve seen in prices for manufactured goods (for instance machine tools?) over the last 20-30 years will end.

 

Then I expect interest in making things for ourselves (as a nation) will increase – and perhaps we’ll even start training our young in useful skills that help keep the wheels of our society turning – like repairing things rather than throwing them away when a minor part breaks.

 

You never know it might even be affordable (and even neccessary) to ‘Buy British’ again.

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