January 19, 2011
Technology and Creativity
I have found it useful to read a diverse group of publications and as I take the bus to most destinations, I am able to keep up with a large volume of material.  The topics range from packaging to design engineering with most material in the area of protein science and biotechnology.   This morning I fond a very useful series of articles in Consulting-Specifying Engineer.   One article in particular, entitled "Mechanical Engineering:What are we in for?" by J. Patrick Banse.  Banse discussed the great changes in mechanical engineering during his 30+ year career including the use of computers and related technologies to help mechanical engineers - but, and her I quote in part, "However, unless you know how the data are developed, what the database looks like......."  This observation can be taken to areas other than mechanical engineering.  There is far too much reliance in biochemistry and related fields on instrumentation and databases and less reliance of understanding of the underlying technologies and experiments.    While the computer has improved productivity, it is not at all clear that the computer has improved creativity (see The Shallows, Nicholas Carr, 2010).