2

Well, right now the world doesn’t need more engineers. We didn’t run out of planes, or television sets. We ran out of food. The world needs farmers. Good farmers, like you. And Tom, we’re a caretaker generation.

- Okafor

Agriculture on land is highly inefficient if you look at Produce per Square Meter. Not very long ago, I did a detailed case analysis on automated agriculture in closed skyscraper because I don't want to eat insects when population reaches 10 billion and I don't like the idea of plants using polluted air/water/soil.

Well, hydroponics/aeroponics/fogponics with artificial light on all 100 floors looks promising and may even beat traditional farmers' prices. This can even be automated with computers without the use of artificial intelligence.

In the Interstellar universe, when full-fledged AI is the norm, why exactly are engineers obsolete over traditional farmers? I can understand the value of food here, but why can't Engineers do the farming (that's also in smarter way)?

Improve this question
9
  • 3
    Because engineers want to be engineers, not farmers.
    – Valorum
    Commented Feb 14, 2018 at 23:53
  • 1
    @Valorum: But that's the point. Engineers wouldn't do farming to get farm produce, they would do engineering (such as creating automated hydroponic farms) for that purpose.
    – O. R. Mapper
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 6:57
  • 3
    90% of your question seems to be an incredibly pointless anecdote about you wanting to become rich. I don't understand it's relevance
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 9:01
  • 2
    It's still not very relevant. It seems to be more of a personal anecdote, do you want a round of applause for your plant tower?
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 22:57
  • 1
    Presumably there's a limit to how many engineers you need vs. how many farmers you need if you want to survive now. He may have literally meant that the world doesn't need more engineers because all the engineers that could be productively working on the problem are already employed. There's only so much notepads to go around, so to speak. (I have no idea if this is a realistic assessment since I'm only a humble engineer of software, which is substantially different from most engineering.)
    – Jeroen Mostert
    Commented Feb 16, 2018 at 6:05

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The main problem in farming presented was the blight affecting the crops, not the efficiency of the plantation.

Farmers were needed to study the disease and try to produce new resistant species using selective breeding and other farming methods.

Farmers don’t just know about preparing soil and placing seeds...

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    Did they really study the disease other than burning the affected crops? Were they equipped with necessary tools to do the research? Definitely, you need more than tractors to do the research.
    – Doctor Doom
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 23:59
  • 1
    Farmers don't study diseases. Scientists study diseases.
    – Misha R
    Commented Feb 17, 2018 at 0:04

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.