Re: Engineering tends towards simpler

It easy to explain really. Nature is built to account for failure through trial and error, engineering is built to avoid failure through predictable design. Engineering has become much more complex over the years, but the idea that reducing failure points increasing predictability of failure has been a tenet of the profession for decades (perhaps centuries). As we become better able to understand and design for the complex, we do, but at any point in time, we try and simplify the design to maintain within the parameters we understand best so that life span of a product is longest and most predictable.