We live in a world of constant technological advancement. But Riyan, 17, has a warning: we should be careful not to drive ourselves into a dead end.
For over a century, the internal combustion engine was the king of engineering. We spent decades
perfecting pistons, valves, and gears to make cars faster and more reliable. This era of “greasy”
engineering built the modern world, and for a long time, we celebrated every extra horsepower as a win
for humanity.
But as we transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and autonomousHaving the freedom to control itself or its life. machines, we’re realising that just because we can build a machine doesn’t mean we’ve thought about what happens when it breaks. Is the world moving toward a high-tech future while our basic understanding of repair and waste stays stuck in the past?
Nowadays, society treats every new electric motor or self-driving feature as a total breakthrough. But
these mechanical leaps come with heavy moral baggage. Take EV batteries, for example. They offer the
promise of zero-emission driving, but the mining for materials like cobalt often involves child labour and
environmental destruction in other countries. It’s the ultimate mechanical irony: we are building “clean”
machines using “dirty” methods.
There is also the issue of the “Black Box” in modern mechanics. In the past, if a tractor or a car broke
down, a person with a wrench could fix it. Now, many machines are designed with “planned
obsolescence” engineered to be replaced rather than repaired. Software locks and complex sensors
mean that even the person who owns the machine isn’t allowed to fix it. This raises a big question: do we
really own our technology anymore, or are we just renting it until it expires?
We do see some balance in areas like Additive Manufacturing (3D printing). This allows engineers to
create parts that use way less material but stay just as strong by mimicking structures found in nature,
like bones. It’s a rare moment where mechanical efficiency and environmental ethics actually work
together.
Maybe the “resistance” some people feel toward these new machines isn’t just a fear of change. Perhaps
it’s a warning. In engineering, we use “safety factors” — we make a part three times stronger than it needs to be just in case. Our ethical hesitation might be a social safety factor, stopping us from building a world that is too complex for us to maintain or control.
Who should be in charge of these limits? Is it the companies making billions off new tech, or should there be a universal “Engineer’s Code” that puts the planet and the user’s rights before profit?
At the end of the day, a machine is only as good as the intent behind it. If we don’t start designing for repairability and ethical sourcing, we aren’t really progressing we’re just accelerating toward a breakdown. In the race between new gadgets and the real world, the smartest move might be to check
the brakes.
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Keywords
Autonomous – Having the freedom to control itself or its life.
