Category: 01

8. The Critical Engineer looks to the history of art, architecture, activism, philosophy and invention and finds exemplary works of Critical Engineering. Strategies, ideas and agendas from these disciplines will be adopted, re-purposed and deployed.

I think this is this the most important tenet of this manifesto because if we continue to function in a society where computation is becoming more and more relevant, the way we approach exploring computation should draw techniques from every discipline. In the same way Leah Buechley argues to change the way STEM subjects are taught, the critical engineer repurposes ideas from different disciplines.

 

 

4. The Critical Engineer looks beyond the "awe of implementation" to determine methods of influence and their specific effects.

I resonate with this tenet a lot especially because we are in a time when we are surrounded by more and more technology. We often hear about how technology advancement brings positive change to their daily life, but fails to realize the possible negative consequences of our abuse of the technology.

One great example is the rise of big data and machine learning. The rise of extremism recent year could be seen as a direct but highly ignored consequence of such comfort. When AI knows our political preferences and only caters to our preferences, we are pushed more and more to the extreme and thus an invisible wall is created that stop us from hearing different voices. While big data and machine learning brings more personalization to our daily life and create a much more effortless living environment, we are at the same time more and more confined in our comfort zone.