Vision, Faith, and Knowledge

TLDR: The authors suggest that values and actions in the social environment are symbolic and that most of the authors' present institutions are responsive to an environment of the rather distant past.

Abstract: The authors discuss the general relationships between technology and personal and social values. They attempt to stimulate consideration by individuals and societies of the changing judgments and ethics now required both for the engineering profession and individual engineers. They suggest that values and actions in the social environment are symbolic and that most of our present institutions are responsive to an environment of the rather distant past. Laissez-faire, the Adam Smith "hidden hand," and "caveat emptor" no longer can be the guiding principles of a technology or of an affluent social system.