[0xbadcafebee]

Surely you already know the history of professional engineers, then? How it's only a little over 118 years old? Mostly originating from the fact that it was charlatans claiming to be engineers, building things that ended up killing people, that inspired the need for a professional license?

"The people who made modern life possible" were not professional engineers, often barely amateurs. Artistocrat polymaths who delved into cutting edge philosophy. Blacksmith craftsmen developing new engines by trial and error. A new englander who failed to study law at Yale, landed in the American South, and developed a modification of an Indian device for separating seed from cotton plants.

In the literal historical sense, "engineering" was just the building of cannons in the 14th century. Since thousands of years before, up until now, there has always been a combination of the practice of building things with some kind of "science" (which itself didn't exist until a few hundred years ago) to try to estimate the result of an expensive, dangerous project.

But these are not the people who made modern life people. Lots, and lots, and lots of people made modern life possible. Not just builders and mathematicians. Receptionists. Interns. Factory workers. Farmers. Bankers. Sailors. Welders. Soldiers. So many professions, and people, whose backs and spirits were bent or broken, to give us the world we have today. Engineers don't deserve any more credit than anyone else - especially considering how much was built before their professions were even established. Science is a process, and math is a tool, that is very useful, and even critical. But without the rest it's just numbers on paper.

[AdieuToLogic]

> Surely you already know the history of professional engineers, then? How it's only a little over 118 years old? Mostly originating from the fact that it was charlatans claiming to be engineers, building things that ended up killing people, that inspired the need for a professional license?

I did not qualify with "professional" as you have, which is disingenuous. If the historical record of what can be considered "engineering" is of import, consider:

  The first recorded engineer
  
  Hey, why not ask? Surely it’s related to understanding the 
  origin of the word engineering? Right? Whatever we’ve asked 
  the question now. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the 
  first recorded “engineer” was Imhotep. He happened to be 
  the builder of the Step Pyramid at Ṣaqqārah, Egypt.
  
  This is thought to have been erected around 2550 BC. Of 
  course, that is recorded history but we know from 
  archeological evidence that humans have been 
  making/building stuff, fires, buildings and all sorts of 
  things for a very long time.
  
  The importance of Imhotep is that he is the first 
  “recorded” engineer if you like.[0]

> But these are not the people who made modern life people[sic]. Lots, and lots, and lots of people made modern life possible.

Of course this is the case. No one skill category can claim credit for all societal advancement.

But all of this is a distraction from what you originally wrote:

  Engineering started out as just some dudes who built things 
  from gut feeling.

  After a whole lot of people died from poorly built things, 
  they decided to figure out how to know ahead of time if it 
  would kill people or not.

These are your words, not mine. And to which I replied:

  This is such an unbelievably dismissive assertion ...

What I wrote has nothing to do with "Engineers don't deserve any more credit than anyone else ..."

It has everything to do with categorizing efforts to solve difficult problems as unserious haphazard undertakings which ultimately led to; "they decided to figure out how to know ahead of time if it would kill people or not" (again, your words not mine).

0 - https://interestingengineering.com/culture/the-origin-of-the...