all truly Big problems are partly or largely social as well as technical
Very true, and the TR article makes this point. However, the article doesn't even talk about how to solve the social aspects of the problems. For example, when talking about how famines are the result of political problems, not technical ones, it dismisses the political part with this comment: "famines will still occur because there will always be bad governments." What a cop out. MIT has whole departments devoted to economics and political science because it understands that intellectual tools need to be developed and applied in those disciplines just as much as in physics or engineering; why can't its magazine recognize that?
(Full disclosure: TR seemed to me to be a much better magazine when I was at MIT, so I tend to rant when I see evidence of its decline.)
Very true, and the TR article makes this point. However, the article doesn't even talk about how to solve the social aspects of the problems. For example, when talking about how famines are the result of political problems, not technical ones, it dismisses the political part with this comment: "famines will still occur because there will always be bad governments." What a cop out. MIT has whole departments devoted to economics and political science because it understands that intellectual tools need to be developed and applied in those disciplines just as much as in physics or engineering; why can't its magazine recognize that?
(Full disclosure: TR seemed to me to be a much better magazine when I was at MIT, so I tend to rant when I see evidence of its decline.)