The engineer: the advocate of technological progress or the artisan of better living?

The major societal issues facing the world today invite us to reconsider - or at least to question - the idea of progress and the role of engineers in civil society. Following on from the recent debate between Pierre Verzat, the chairman of Syntec-Ingénierie, and Etienne Klein, the engineer and philosopher, I would like to return to this important issue of the place of the engineer in society.

Engineers have long suffered from a lack of visibility on the public stage, often being reduced to pure 'intellectuals of technical knowledge' operating in the shadows. The time has perhaps come to do them justice by considering not so much the image we have of them as the decisive role they play in the transformation of our living environment and the construction of society itself.

Progress: a problem of definition

 In the 19th century, during the industrial revolution, many people swore by a scientistic and positivist conception of progress. The idea that everything can invariably be solved by science left such a deep and lasting impression on the minds of the time that it is still not uncommon today to see it revived in the idealised image of the engineer: the science and technology buff who has a solution for every problem.

But this is no longer the 19th century, or even the 20th. The idea of progress that we now have is no longer one of blind confidence in the "omnipotence of science and technology". After all, with the hindsight that befits an objective observer of history, has the industrial revolution ultimately been as beneficial to humanity as had been envisaged a century and a half earlier? It is difficult to agree as categorically as we did in the past, given that today we are no longer unaware of the global impact of human activities on the earth's ecosystem.

To make matters worse, some of today's problems clearly do not have ready-made or collectively accepted solutions that can be applied immediately. Climate change, resource depletion or the decline in biodiversity are all obstacles that cannot be overcome - far from it - by scientific rigour alone. Political, economic, ethical and moral considerations also come into play, and it is impossible to ignore them (including for engineers).

Homo Numericus… or maybe not!

It is edifying to note that during the second half of the 20th century, the very term 'progress' was gradually supplanted in usage by the apparently less ambiguous term 'innovation'. However, this term has been widely abused and its meaning is sometimes misinterpreted. Thus, it is almost mechanically associated - and in a completely abusive manner - with "a (feverish?) race to technology" or "a headlong rush towards all-digital technology", expressions that echo the famous "you can't stop progress!" of yesteryear.

 What does an engineer think of all this? Does the salvation of humanity really lie in (high) technology, artificial intelligence and transhumanism? And from there, should we consider technological innovations as unquestionable markers of human progress?

 For the engineer, this question somewhat misses the point. It is not the technology itself that will save the world but our ability to use it wisely. If a technical or technological solution is not appropriate to the problem at hand, it must be changed. If an innovation does not survive the test of a market, it must be abandoned. And innovation does not necessarily mean digital. Yes, digital tech can be an accelerator of innovation, insofar as it allows us to move faster, dialogue instantly, exchange ideas and cooperate within a resource-rich ecosystem... but it is only one means among many others. If a non-digital solution works, then the engineer adopts it!

For a new relationship with the engineer, the maker of possibilities

Today, construction engineering is present in practically every aspect of society. Engineers are responding to the growing need for mobility by designing and implementing safer, more efficient infrastructures that are above all better adapted to the new uses to which they are put. Faced with the need to reduce carbon emissions, engineers optimise the energy performance of buildings, improve their insulation, use bio-sourced materials or eco-responsible construction methods.

 The engineer is an actor of their time. They are less a 'miraculous maker of modernity', as they were idealised in the 19th century, than an enlightened provider of ad hoc, technically efficient and, as far as possible, ecologically responsible solutions to challenges that are constantly evolving at the same time as society's aspirations, ways of thinking and ways of acting are changing.

 In the engineer, all temporalities are expressed: the past, through the mobilisation of centuries-old knowledge; the present, through their concrete and daily action in structuring our living environments; and the future, through their ability to anticipate future needs and challenges.

Engineers also stand out in their role as intermediaries, in that they are an indispensable interface between 'thinking' and 'doing'; they are the transmission belt that brings to fruition ideas that would otherwise not have gone beyond the drawing board.

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 Ultimately, in the construction sector, the engineer explicitly embraces the role of shaper of the living environment, and therefore a craftsman of better living, for whom the general interest is the end goal of their work. They are ''at the service of''. And this is perhaps how we should, in the future, consider the full extent of the role they play, in a relationship with the profession re-evaluated in the light of their real action in the sustainable construction and development of our society.

 Thus, in the mind of a 21st century engineer, progress is more a matter of what is technically possible - and desirable - to implement in order to achieve a better collective and societal life. In other words, the idea of progress is closely linked to the notion of general interest. This is a noble goal that is of particular importance to Egis employees, whose common vocation is to bequeath a sustainable and desirable future to the present and future generations.