A brief history of the future

摘要

From "The Future of Engineering": Interpretation of the events in the past is the only valid method of predicting the future. The tremendous advances of our own civilization during the past 100 years are due more than anything else to the harnessing of the power of steam and the utilization of the energy in coal and water power. The socially important aspect of the machine age is not the machines themselves but is to be found in the fact that increased productive power has released human thought and energy for development in directions other than mere existence. If "the pathway to the future is in the hands of the engineer," then he has a very grave responsibility! It is not enough that he should produce new implements for man's desires; he must take a leading part in seeing to it that the new world which he is creating is a good sort of a place in which to live.