Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
An ode to systems engineers—whose invisible work undergirds our life—and an exploration of the wicked problems they tackle.
Our world is filled with pernicious problems. How, for example, did novice pilots learn to fly without taking to the air and risking their lives? How should cities process mountains of waste without polluting the environment? Challenges that tangle personal, public, and planetary aspects—often occurring in health care, infrastructure, business, and policy—are known as wicked problems, and they are not going away anytime soon.
In linked chapters focusing on key facets of systems engineering—efficiency, vagueness, vulnerability, safety, maintenance, and resilience—engineer Guru Madhavan illuminates how wicked problems have emerged throughout history and how best to address them in the future. He examines best-known tragedies and lesser-known tales, from the efficient design of battleships to a volcano eruption that curtailed global commerce, and how maintenance of our sanitation systems constitutes tikkun olam, or repair of our world. Braided throughout is the uplifting tale of Edwin Link, an unsung hero who revolutionized aviation with his flight trainer. In Link’s story, Madhavan uncovers a model mindset to engage with wickedness.
An homage to society’s innovators and maintainers, Wicked Problems offers a refreshing vision for readers of all backgrounds to build a better future and demonstrates how engineering is a cultural choice—one that requires us to restlessly find ways to transform society, but perhaps more critically, to care for the creations that already exist.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Biomedical engineer Madhavan (Applied Minds) presents a scattered argument for applying principles of systems engineering (understanding how discrete factors interact to influence outcomes) to solve complicated problems. Case studies highlight engineering projects that required nontechnical knowledge to reach their full potential. For instance, Madhavan points to mid-20th-century efforts to make automobiles safer, explaining the technical aspects of airbag deployment and arguing that the devices didn't reach their maximum effectiveness until a public relations campaign convinced drivers to pair them with seat belts. Interstitial chapters comprise a biography of Ed Link, whom Madhavan credits with embodying "the philosophy of systems engineering" for inventing early flight simulators in the 1930s, which involved reducing the sensation of flying to distinct components that could be recreated artificially. Unfortunately, the Link material comes across as tacked on rather than logically integrated with the case studies. Madhavan's detailed discussions of the intersections of technical and civil engineering demonstrate his considerable erudition, but it's difficult to glean takeaways from his meandering explorations of flood control on the Mississippi River, New York City's wastewater treatment facilities, and road maintenance in 19th-century Paris. A secondary thesis arguing that systems engineering can help save democracy never really comes together. This gets lost in the weeds. Photos.
