We can, but should we? [From the Editor's Bench]

Iam approaching my mid-forties. As a young child, I used to speak to my dad and to my uncle Stevie about computers. As a twelve year old, I went to work with my dad and learned to program a computer. (I used a TRS-80 Model I, Level II at Queensborough Community College.) I went to college and studied engineering and learned more about science and technology. I have been teaching engineering full-time since the late nineties, and I enjoy it at least as much now as I did twenty years ago. I enjoy engineering -- both the theory and the practice -- but I often wonder about the wisdom of many of the behaviors that are facilitated by the products that we create.