In <5gcb9c$7cs at vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>, kspencer at s.psych.uiuc.edu (Kevin Spencer) writes:
>junior1 at ibm.net (Bernie Arruza) writes:
>>>Then they will stop being engineers, won't they :-). Looks
>>like we are back where we started. I hope we concentrate
>>on the rule more than the exception. Dropping your career
>>as an engineer and going back to school to study neurosciences
>>is not that easy. The problem, and I would hope you both
>>agree, is that there is a desperate need for a new discipline.
>>Universities need to come up with a new breed of individuals
>>that are comfortable with being engineuroscientists (please,
>>quote me on this one and quote me frequently <G>)
>>I'm afraid I disagree. I really don't see why there is a "desperate
>need" for a new discipline. Engineering may be defined as the
>application of scientific principles towards solving problems of
>a practical nature. These principles are usually discovered through
>the work of scientists, and then practically applied by engineers.
>(That is a gross generalization, of course -- most scientists will
>need to do some "engineering" at some point in their work, and some
>engineers will undertake research.)
You got the definition of an engineer exactly right. But, again, that is
the root of the problem. I'm sure that you will also disagree with the
following paragraph, but that is ok.
There aren't enough engineers working in the field of neurosciences,
and as a result there is (a lot of?) research (scientific if
you'd like) being done, but the benefits of what is being learned
at the medical research labs are not being put to use to benefit
society at large "solving problems of a practical nature".
We need more inventions of this type:
BusinessWeek March 24,1997
"A jolt of relief from Parkinson's Disease"
The article describes a "pacemaker for the brain". A pulse
generator that sends electrical impulses to the Thalamus
to noticeably reduce the occurrence of tremors in some
patients suffering from Parkinson's disease.
The company that makes the device is called Medtronic Inc
and the device is called Activa
>>The questions of how the brain works, and how it is related to the mind,
>are *scientific* questions, not matters of engineering. How could
>engineering help solve these questions?
The brain is the ultimate computing device. The possibility of
applying what neuroscientist learn about the brain to real
world appliances and devices (that may have nothing to do with
the brain itself) does not seem so bizarre to me. I guess we
just don't see the world with the same eyes :-(
As a computer engineer, I know that a better way of computing
(very different than today's symbolic computing) exits in my own
brain. I just worry that the computer industry does not "see"
(again there may be two or three companies that see but they
are the exception) the benefit of applying what is being
learned at the medical research labs.
I use the computer industry, because it's what I know. Just
think how the level of awareness in society, about the study
of the brain, would be raise several notches if engineers came
up with smart (vehicles, computers, phones,..) based on
neuroscientific research, instead of us all just waiting to
hear about the next medical breakthrough in brain research.
> And what kind of engineering,
>anyway? Civil? Chemical? Electrical? Waste management? :)
Electrical, of course :-), but I don't see why what is
learned about the brain could not, in one way or another, be applied
to all the fields you mentioned above. Ex. smart synthetic bacteria for
waste management.
>>Kevin
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>Kevin Spencer
>Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory and Beckman Institute
>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>kspencer at s.psych.uiuc.edu>-----------------------------------------------------------
___________________________________
Bernie Arruza.
Boca Raton, Fl USA
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__The_way_of_the_warrior_is_the___
__resolute_acceptance_of_death.___
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___________Miyamoto_Musashi_______
___________The_Book_of_Five_Rings_
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