Design of Man
Description
Wit and wisdom . . . and engineering.
Engineers create models of natural processes in order to build the world we live in. Resonance, natural frequency, design, controls-no one understands the physical world like an engineer.
But can engineering tell us anything about human nature?
In this short and witty book, author J L Duncan explores the analogues between human behaviour and physical processes. Do individuals have a natural frequency? Can we be predicted and modified? And if Tesla thought he could make a building fall down by pushing it at just at the right intervals, can subtly timed irritations make a human being go to pieces?
The quest is speculative, entertaining, and not at all meant to instruct-though it may accidentally do so, just a little.
More details
Person
John L Duncan was born in Australia in 1932 and graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Melbourne. After a number of years in engineering construction he took up an academic appointment at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, followed by academic positions in Canada and New Zealand. He retired as Professor Emeritus from the University of Auckland in 1998. Professor Duncan and his wife live on a small farm near Auckland with part of their family. They have three children, eight grandchildren, and, at present, one great-grandchild. His hobbies include sailing, boat-building, restoration of historic automobiles, and writing. Along with numerous academic works, he is the author of Any Colour so Long as It's Black (Exisle Publishing, 2011), a book on the design of the Model T Ford.
