Educating (for the newtechnology

The modern engineer must broaden hisspectrum of knowledge rather thanconfine it to a narrow specialty; hemust possess both a decision-makingcapability within his field and aresponsibility toward society

Howard W. JohnsonMassachusetts Institute of Technology

It is the responsibility of the colleges and universitiesto provide the engineering student of today with acompetent technical background without overem-phasizing specialization. The education of the engineershould be founded on a broad-based program de-signed to equip the graduate with sociological in-sight and capability, thus providing society with a us not be caught in the trap of arguing for one over theuseful and cognizant citizen as well as a competent other.engineer. Rising from the scientific base, the superstructure of

technology relates to the imaginative and economicIf it is difficult to characterize the whole scope of application of ideas to human needs. We have seen

modem electrical and electronics engineering, how much the amazing combination of enterprise, intelligence, andmore difficult it is to characterize in a few words the growing expectations that comprise our technologicalwhole range of activity, the potential, and the hopes of economy. But there is a problem that puts this normalthis remarkable and complex society of ours in which process of technological realization in a different light.engineering functions. Intellectual observers from de We must find ways to place new emphasis and attentionTocqueville to Galbraith have tried to do so, and so on the systemic nature of large-scale human uses ofhave the political activists from the Federalist presidents technology. I mean by this that in this next period ofand near-presidents to the incumbent President. As a history we must make a special effort to meet the massiveresult, we have all kinds of adjectives modifying the needs of our society. This human focus of technologynoun society, from "democratic" and "just" to "affluent" should be a primary concern for today and for theand "great." Shorthand such as this can be reasonably future. To achieve these goals-to harness technologicaluseful, however; and I want to add a few adjectives means for large-scale human problem-solving-will re-myself for consideration, especially in the light of society's quire a new order of thinking, creativity, and decisionneed of both engineering and education. making on the part of our citizens, our companies, ourThe first of my three adjectives is teclhnological, government, and especially our schools and universities.

Technology concerns itself with the means used in pro- It is this task of educating for what I call the "newviding "objects for human sustenance and comfort." technology" that I wish to discuss.The base on which technology is built in our time is thepursuit of scientific truth and discovery. This pursuit The new technologymust be, in a real sense, independent of the applications I think we would all agree that technology has beenthat proceed from it; and I believe that our concern successful in serving a wide variety of our individualtoday should be to strengthen substantially this scientific needs; but quite often, in so doing, it has operated with-underpinning. Sometimes I hear argument that makes it out the long-range vision necessary to provide a totalsound as though emphasis on science on the one hand atmosphere conducive to man's development. In addi-and application on the other are by nature competitive. tion to being concerned with every man, technologyI don't believe that. They both need massive independent must also be concerned with the whole man. It mustsupport, and to shortchange first-class basic science seek to create the large-scale environment in which manis the surest way to long-term technological failure. Let can realize his fuU potential as a human being. It must

IEEE spectrum AUGUST 1967

be as sensitive to aesthetics as to efficiency, to human I summarize then by adding the second of my adjec-growth as to economic and industrial expansion. Today, tives to the lexicon of society descriptives. We live in anwe have come to realize that the environment is not interdependent society that is irreversible in its dynamics.merely a conditioner of man's "physical" existence, but The very fabric of the city creates interactions that makepenetrates and influences all aspects of our life. the quality of transportation, education, politics, eco-We are discovering that the right of free citizens to nomics, and citizenship all closely interconnected. In this

move freely without hindrance can be made meaningless setting, the task of the modern engineer assumes a higherby the breakdown of mass transportation, and the order intellectually than that which is associated withright of free assembly can be negated by impassable city understanding basic science. And this applies to engineerstraffic, or, for that matter, by uncontrolled crime in the who must now concern themselves with old problems incity streets. We are beginning to suspect that free speech new forms, such as communication, power, and trans-and a free press might become irrelevant if we were slowly portation. Just as the so-called "new economics" seeksstrangled by the air we breathe, or slowly poisoned by to affect the macroeconomic system, so must the "newour drinking water. We are beginning to see that equal engineering" seek to affect the macrotechnical system.rights and equal job opportunity, when finally obtainedby citizens long denied them, can be made meaningless A broader technologyby intolerable housing conditions or by ineffective educa- I hold that the solutions to these problems are implicittion systems. We are beginning to realize that if exploding in the problems themselves. Just as technology haspopulations create a world of starving humans practically created massive problems, so their solutions can only bestanding on each other's shoulders, all concepts of free- found in great new discoveries and advances- of tech-dom can become irrelevant, and U.S. prosperity could be nology-a new and broader technology that encompassesinfuriating and incendiary to billions deprived of either not only science, but all the activities and concerns ofhope or future. man (including the humanities, art, social sciences, and

government).Probiems of progress I have used the mosaic of the city as a background

All these are truly massive problems, and they are the for the statement of urgency of the new technology andproducts, in a very literal sense, of a technology that has the new engineering, but there are many other examples.been successful beyond the dreams of its early practi- One can scarcely imagine a major societal problem in thetioners. It is the advance of medicine that has created world today-whether it be arms reduction and control,the explosion of the world's population through lowered reduction of the world food shortage, exploration ofdeath rates. It is the creation ofthousands ofnew products, extraterrestrial opportunities, or the great gulf betweennew services, and new jobs that has transformed Amnerican the haves and the have-nots-which does not require asociety from a predominantly rural to a predominantly technological and management approach that combinesurban one, and at the same time so multiplied the out- engineering, the social sciences, and, most of all, a philoso-put of each farmer as to send millions of marginal farm- phy for understanding our goals. By the same token,ers to the cities. It is the increased effectiveness of new tomorrow's challenges are so huge that the men capableforms of transportation-air and auto-that has weak- of dealing with them will need to be technologicalened the railroads. It is the enormous increase in auto- generalists rather than technical specialists.mobile ownership that jams our streets and highways. Today, the specialist whose interests are limited to theIt is technology's increase of income and expectations narrow definition of his field is not the best person tothat crowds our colleges. The history of technology may guide the progress of our society. We need people who,be summarized as having continuously created more and in Norbert Wiener's words, have the one quality morecheaper energy, more effective forms of human organiza- important than "'know-how." This quality he callstion, more and faster transportation and communica- "know-what, by which we determine not only how totions. Each increase in one factor has increased the accomplish our purposes, but what our purposes areeffectiveness of the other two, and all three factors have to be." We need men and women whose awarenessincreased the speed of performing large-scale operations. includes the broader human implications of their studies

It is no exaggeration to say that just as technology and actions.made Big Business possible, through increasingly largeraggregations of people, capital, and equipment, so it also Responsibilities of educationmade Big Government inevitable. But Big Business and The universities today have both the resources andBig Government both must be as responsive as ever, in the responsibility to respond to the challenge of educatingfact more so, to the needs of individuals and also to the for this new technology, and of tempering progress withcomplex groups of individuals that form the modern perspective. Yet we must be careful not to respond hap-metropolis. A concomitant of great organizational size has hazardly to the needs that confront us; we must not trybeen the frequent depersonalization of administrative, po- to be too many things to too many people. The funda-litical, and management controls and methods that some- mental purpose of the university is to provide for learn-times deprives the individual of a sense of participation in ing, and it is only within this educational context thatmeaningful decisions regarding his own life and work. we must seek to develop the means whereby we can serveThis in turn has contributed to a sense of frustration society effectively.and bafflement often expressed by young people today. Unchanged throughout the years, a fundamentalIn all these outpourings of uneasiness about the dual objective of the university today is to provide talentedresult of technology, both positive and distressing, it young people with a liberal education-with the oppor-does no good to long for the old days, because we cannot tunity to learn to think, to develop a sense of balancego back. and perspective, and, I would add, to develop a taste for

100 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~IEEEspectrum AUGUST 1967

quality. I believe we will come to see that the under- contribution to make if the society is to improve. We findgraduate curriculum must be built both on science, over and over again that the greatest source of pride offor science is the essential determinant of our lives, and our alumni is the knowledge that they accomplish some-on the humanities, because they provide the essential thing. I am oonvinced that it is through this level of per-meaning of our lives. In my opinion this combination is sonal contribution that our students will satisfy them-vitally important to produce a truly liberal education selves that they can reach as far as their potential allows,for the world of the new technology. that their education can be a real and effective learning

Let me hasten to clarify here that when I speak of a experience.liberal education, I mean to distinguish it from the con-cept of a "liberal arts" education, as it is sometimes An example to othersinterpreted to mean a concentration on humanistic sub- If we can succeed in these forms of liberal education,jects to the virtual exclusion of the physical sciences. if we can develop diversity within an interdependentI would say that such an education today may fall short technological society, we will have succeeded in makingof its "liberal" objective. In fact, it may be confining, as the United States a more interesting model for otherit would offer the student a limited perspective. It would countries to examine. It seems to me that we alwaystend to shield him from exposure and understanding of run the risk of assuming that other countries will lookthe forces of scientific discovery that shape our civiliza- to the United States only in terms of its great and grow-tion; and it would deprive him from participating in the ing gross national product. True enough, our economicproblem-solving activities of the technological revolution. system is a remarkable development and its emulationI believe that effective education of men and women to in even the most unexpected quarters is now evident.understand and to master today's problems requires a But that model is incomplete. We must be prepared tobasic comprehension of science and technology in balance demonstrate that we can produce a new and fulfillingwith the appreciation for the valuable insight gained by pattern of city life that goes beyond the growing shamblesthe study of literature, history, and the arts. Without this of the present. A new and higher quality of daily livingbalance, educated people run the risk of serving the will serve to give meaning to the greater personal incomestechnology that was meant to serve their human needs. our system can produce. And beyond the scope of theseThis raises the third of my adjectives: we must seek a comments, I hope we can keep in the United States adiverse society, one that utilizes the rich contributions genuine idealism that in its freshness and worth serves toof all fields of knowledge. How can we do this without light the path of progress for a cynical world. If we losepreparing our leadership groups broadly in both science that unabashed idealism, and we could, we will lose theand the arts? chance to serve as a model for others despite a high

gross national product.The liberal education

This liberal education I speak of is the philosophical The needs of the new technologyframework within which the learning process must go on This then is my message:in today's world. At the heart of the learning process the First, that the world today is a technological one, butexchange between teacher and student takes place at it demands a new technology that must be redefined tothree distinct levels, which are parallel and, for the most contain the imperative of our times: to understand sciencepart, inseparable from each other. and to harness its applications for the satisfaction of ourThe first level is that of technical competence. Whatever large-scale human needs.

the subject may be, science, engineering, economics, or Second, that with this new technology goes a new con-literature, the student learns to master new knowledge cept of liberal education, one that rests on science asand ideas in depth. There is a sense of conquest in this well as the humanities and the arts, one that aims ataspect of learning: to understand and become conversant producing in one person the rare blend of the "poet andwith, to be able to use as your own, facts and concepts the useful man." The society will be most satisfying if itthat were not yours before. This is the stretching of the safely becomes a diverse one.mind, the intellectual scholarship that I define as technical Third, that in the atmosphere of a world characterizedcompetence. by ambiguity and change, the universities in the worldThe second level is that of integrating diversity for the are called upon to provide leadership in this liberal educa-

purpose of decision making. The training of the mind to tion, not only to those who are preparing for a profes-analyze and to ask the right question, to choose, to sional career, but also to those who are midstream andjudge and discriminate, to consider the human factors, to wish to restructure their lives and recharge their intellec-order chaotic situations, and to deal with ambiguity (the tual batteries. To make an effective contribution con-standard condition of our modern world of change), sistent with their basic educational objectives, universitiesthese are also some of the cardinal elements of learning must stress the development of technical competence, an

that add character to depth and technical competence. integrated and broad judgment, and a sense of personalThey make possible the effective application and exten- contribution.sion ofknowledge; they allow for the mark of individual- I salute you for the efforts that your Institute hasity in scholarship. made in seeking to define the goals for a technological,

Finally, I believe that our students should be educated interdependent, and, I hope, diverse society; and Iat the level of personal responsibility and contribution to wish you continued success in providing the leadershipsociety. I mean by Xthis that they must learn not only how to reach these goals.to get but how to give. Whether one relates this to afaiy a unvriy a'opn,o outy h on Essentially full text of an address presented at the 1967 IEEE

men and women of today must know that they have a lnternational Convention, New York, N.Y., March 20-23.

Johnson-Educating for the new technology 101