“An Engineer’s Perspective” means that this is the thoughts of this author and may not reflect view of most engineer’s, however, my guess that it hits close to home for most engineers who have designed complex systems. 

Realism

Engineering is about designing and creating things that work.  This means that there is an objective that is normally put into writing in the form of goals and specifications. 

The goals are typically organized into two groups, “must” goals and “want” goals.  The must goals are “not negotiable”, they must be met or is not worth the effort of starting the project.  The “wants” are goals that will enhance the product in some way and these are normally ordered by value.  This exercise is necessary due to the realization that it is seldom that trade-offs are required, enhancing one objective typically degrades another.  Specifications follow objectives, putting subjective goals into specified, objective engineering terms.

There is no such thing as perfection, always trade-offs.  The specifications will normally included “life” requirements.  This is a recognition that “in the real world” things degrade over time.  The 2nd law of thermodynamics always takes it toll.  Products have to be designed in order to have a useful “lifetime.” 

One cannot get around the laws of physics.  Likewise, one cannot get around logical limitations. Logical limitations include the fact that parts are not perfect.  Inductors also have resistance.  Resistors also have inductance.  Conductors have resistance and inductance.  Semiconductor switches have risetimes, and they have resitive, electrostatic and magnetic coupling between the input and output.  These are all logical limitations that constrain results. 

The success of an engineer is reflected by his/her abiltiy to design the best possible product with the technology available, or to develop new technology that broaden posssibilities.  And the success of a product is measured by its suceess in the marketplace. 

This brings us to life.  Life is not a product in the sense that life is not an entity for sale.  But life, including we humans, were designed for some reason.  The complexity and skill involved in our design is beyond human comprehension.  I believe I speak for most thoughtful, experienced engineers that have taken a serious look “under the hood of life.” 

I poist that mankind may never be able to fully reverse engineer life due to its microscopic scale coupled with its insane complexity.  But I also poist that there is no higher calling as this is the connection between science, philosophy and theology.