This paper deals with the arrow of complexification of engineering. We claim that the complexification of engineering consists in (a) that shift throughout which engineering becomes a science; thus it ceases to be a (mere) praxis or profession; (b) becoming a science, engineering can be considered as one of the sciences of complexity. In reality, the complexification of engineering is the process by which engineering can be studied, achieved and understood in terms of knowledge, and not of goods and services any longer. Complex engineered systems and bio-inspired engineering are so far the two expressions of a complex engineering.
We are currently facing a dynamic process of complexification of engineering sciences. To be sure, such is a proof of vitality and change that, nonetheless, is to be fully understood and explained. That is the aim of this paper.
There was a time when engineering was considered just as a practice on based-knowledge [1]; in other words, as the way through which science acts upon the world. As such, engineering could be considered as part of the little science [2] (The expressions “little science” and “big science” will be used repeatedly here. They are to be taken not literally in the sense of De Solla Price, but as references of a turn or a shift in the evolution of complexity. The basic idea is the move from little science towards big science as a trend to the complexification of engineering. This idea is not present in the book by De Solla Price).
The aim of engineering aim was directed toward the production and control of goods and services. At its best, it was part of the third sector of economics, namely services. Physics and mathematics, and particularly integral and differential calculus, were the very core of engineers as they were striving for exact methods and single solutions for each problem at a time. Classical formal logic and particularly boolean systems and notations have been part and still belong to the normal formation of engineers. Engineers were trying to differentiate themselves as they acted upon nature, the world and society in a variety of subfields; for instance, civil, electronic, environmental, chemical, transport, food or aero spatial engineering to name but a few.
The complexification of engineering is however not to be taken as a diversification of its fields and scopes neither in the use of a range of mathematical, technological and computational tools. Something deeper and from a wider scope and reach is at stake both within engineering and in its relationships with other sciences and disciplines. What is truly going on affects the very nature of science and of nature, eventually.
In this paper we study the trend of engineering to complexity. In so doing we define the relationship between engineering and complexity and we claim that engineering is going through a radical change of its very nature, even though such a trend is far from being general or normal. We will focus not so much in the past of engineering as in the process-to-be. At the end, several conclusions are drawn.
THE STATE-OF-THE-ART AND THE TREND TOWARD COMPLEXIFICATION OF ENGINEERING Classical engineering cares about prediction, predictability, transparency, reliability and centralized control. Serious concerns about literally building up the world are at stake throughout these concepts and practices. The engineering sciences including the sciences of materials have serious pragmatic interests in what these concepts are all about, no doubt. And yet, the focus of this paper is not about the pragmatics of engineering as in the conceptual if not the scientific and philosophical stand of engineering.
Within what can be called as classical engineering reversed systems engineering plays a fundamental role in that it concentrates in aspects as reuse and on the analysis of existing problems. A number of companies and countries have been growing and developing focusing mainly in reversed systems engineering. What is true is that both classical and reversed systems engineering are well set up as a work and research on intelligent solutions. In general, an intelligent solution in engineering is the one that is based on approximate models and on a variety of heuristic techniques such as tabu search, simulated annealing and stochastic hill climbing, and the like. The methods of modern heuristics include fuzzy systems, neural networks, genetic algorithms and multi-agent systems [3,4].
More recently, a new conceptual field has been growing that focuses on systems or software that supports engineering activities. The importance of computing, modeling and simulation and even more widely the significance of microelectronic systems and components have triggered the importance of meta-engineering [5].
Meta-engineering has been conceived as a sort of “engineering engineering” with the help of software and/or systems that support all daily activities, choices and plans proposed or carried out by engineers. The focus here is placed on design, and design is conceived as the most fundamental part of engineering at large.
Being as it might be, the present state of engineeringboth as a practice as in its conceptual or theoretical foundations, the engineering sciences deal with great success with simple and complicated systems. A simple system is simply one that can be fully grasped and manipulated in terms of division, fragmentation, segregation. As for a complicated system, it is the one that can be understood and intervened with the help of approaches and tools such as statistics, matrix analyses, vectors, standards, averages
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