The most noteworthy inventions, fire and the wheel, are becoming out-dated in modern society.  Actually, it seems that everything needed to improve and sustain human life has already been created, or else it is just an impossible, fictional idea.  The above statement is incorrect, however, I cannot think of any completely novel item that can be feasibly engineered, even though I am still holding out for teleportation and mind-reading devices.

 

Each year Time magazine publishes an annual issue overflowing with the descriptions of that year’s new inventions.  It is highly unlikely (actually it would take an apocalypse to prevent) that new inventions would not reach the market.  I expect that the trend of the next one-hundred years of engineering will not leave us with original and “surprising” products, such as electricity and the computer were to their centuries.  Instead, these years will be an opportunity for the perfection of current devices, programs, and procedures.  This does not mean that there will be no new devices, but that most of the ideas and basic scientific principles behind this upcoming technology already exist. 

 

Alternative fuel.  Efficient engines.  Crash-proof PC.  Perfectly effective chemotherapy.  Tires that grip.  Endless supplies of fresh water.  Precise warning systems for natural disasters.  Fast planes.  Localized drug delivery.  Fully protected software and data.  There is an endless list of what can go wrong with current technology, yet the list above shows directions in where various engineering disciplines can take us in the next 100 years.

 

While the elaborate process of engineering research and execution will remain in line with consumer-driven demands, global interactions will probably begin to play a larger role in engineering efforts.  Modern Industrialization is spreading manufacturing facilities into more third world countries, changing our current market and trade structures.  Countries such as China and India are gaining leading steps in engineering through further increasing their devotion to education, research and invention.  With mass globalization of both research, development and manufacturing, the next one hundred years will not be a space race to reach the moon, but a goal to reach the moon in the most efficient, safe and effective manner.  Trends that have lead us towards what is only the dawn of corporate globalization, making each significant company an international enterprise.  As more and more companies spread themselves over numerous continents, a developing socio-economic structure to these corporations will likely dictate both the behavior researchers and results that they obtain.  While such a trend can only be speculated, I believe that this increase in multinational and diversely educated engineering teams in private corporations can only serve to develop products more quickly and efficiently.

 

While the physical nature of engineering and its products will change in the next 100 years, I cannot even begin to make a guess as to how the fate of ethics in engineering may change.  I can only hope that the morals of hard work and integrity remain the cornerstone of each engineer.