"MECHANICAL" · 총 23건
필터 보기현재 지수
50.3
0 = 부정 우세
50 = 중립
100 = 긍정 우세
최근 7일 기준 88,908건을 분석한 결과, 뉴스 심리지수는 50.3(균형)입니다. 긍정 4,493건(5.1%)·중립 82,307건(92.6%)·부정 2,108건(2.4%)이며, 중립 비중이 뚜렷하게 높습니다. 성향 지수는 종합 15.1(중도 균형)입니다.
The Logitech G512 X 98 lets you swap between mechanical and analog switches in an attempt to achieve the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, its solution isn't as well thought-out as I'd hoped.
Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff Works about infatuation and deep feeling were fitting choices with which the Ryan Bancroft bid a celebratory farewell to the BBC National Orchestra of Wales Back in 2018, Ryan Bancroft jumped in as a last-minute replacement for a BBC National Orchestra of Wales tour. By September 2020, the US-born musician was principal conductor. In his six-year tenure, he has always been a vibrant and quietly forceful presence on the podium, amply demonstrated in this, his last Cardiff concert in the role. He opened with Stravinsky’s Song of the Nightingale, the symphonic poem fashioned from music originally an opera and ultimately a ballet choreographed by Balanchine. Hans Christian Andersen’s story, set in imperial China, allowed Stravinsky to conjure exotic sounds, including gong and celeste. But it’s the poignancy of the emperor’s fate, symbolised by his infatuation first with a real nightingale – made suitably enchanting by Matthew Featherstone’s flute – who is then usurped in his affection by a mere mechanical version, that colours the score. Continue reading...
Stress of the earlier regime was on electro-mechanical works not on civil works like land acquisition, says Revanth Reddy
Dinnerstein/Baroklyn (Naïve) With a refreshingly organic approach, the US pianist and her string ensemble revitalise the modern minimalist master’s score for The Hours and his Tirol Concerto Getting ahead of next year’s 90th birthday celebrations, American pianist Simone Dinnerstein presents two works by Philip Glass, performing alongside her own string ensemble. Baroklyn – the name conflates her home borough of Brooklyn and the baroque sensibilities of JS Bach – take a far-from-mechanical approach to the composer’s minimalist tics. Their aim is to emulate the passage of time like sand through an hourglass (hence the title) rather than chopping the music into segments like the hands of a clock. And it works. Arranged by Michael Riesman, Suite from The Hours splices Glass’s score for Stephen Daldry’s film into an almost symphonic three-movement work. The story’s pain and poetry is encapsulated in an immersive score for piano, strings, harp and celesta, with Dinnerstein raising the emotional stakes by adopting considerably slower tempi than the movie soundtrack. Continue reading...
At a workshop owned by Jiangsu Zhufeng Electromechanical Technology Co in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, a buyer evaluated an electric three-wheeler model destined for Indonesia, discussing modifications with engineers, who took detailed notes on the customer's requirements.
PRESS RELEASE: The Professional Regulation Commission announces that two out of 10 passed the Mechanical Engineers Special Professional Licensure Examination, and none passed the Certified Plant Mechanics Special Professional Licensure Examination
Mishra holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Roorkee.
더벨'머니투데이 thebell'에 출고된 기사입니다. 미래컴퍼니가 차세대 반도체 첨단 공정 장비 국산화를 위한 대규모 국책과제의 주관연구개발기관으로 선정됐다. 수술로봇 분야의 피지컬 AI 국책과제 선정에 이은 두번째 기술 행보다. 미래컴퍼니는 산업통상자원부가 지원하고 한국산업기술기획평가원(KEIT)이 관장하는 '2026년도 반도체첨단산업기술개발' 사업의 주관연구개발기관으로 최종 선정됐다고 2일 밝혔다. 미래컴퍼니가 주관하는 과제는 '차세대 웨이퍼 수직적층 공정 고도화를 위한 BG-CMP (Back Grinding - Chemical Mechanical Planarization) 연동 초박형 Thinning 장비 개발'이다. 연구 기간은 2028년 12월까지 약 2년 9개월이다. 총 연구개발비 약 109억원 규모에 달하는 대형 프로젝트다. 공동연구개발기관으로 팀스핀들과 한양대학교 산학협력단이 함께 참여해 소부장 기술 자립화를 도모한다....
In 1987, Richard Greenhill, a British photographer who was fascinated by (but had no actual training in) robotics, decided he wanted to build a life-size humanoid that could do useful things, like carrying luggage. He was working at a startup called Intergalactic Robots, but he couldn’t convince anyone there to build such a machine, so he set about building one himself, in his attic. To help with his project, he organized a weekly get-together of a dozen or so like-minded folks. Every Wednesday night, his wife, Sally, would make a big pot of spaghetti, and the group would tinker with components scavenged from old printers and picked up from junkyards. They called themselves the Shadow Group. They eventually constructed several different robots, but their main project was the two-legged Shadow Walker. In 1987, photographer Richard Greenhill organized a weekly gathering of DIY enthusiasts to work on projects in his attic, including the Shadow Walker. Richard Greenhill and David Buckley Greenhill’s friend David Buckley, a robotics and animatronics expert he’d met at Intergalactic, sketched out a rough design based on medical textbooks of human bone structure and muscle movement. The robot’s skeleton, made of maple, was greatly simplified—only one bone in the lower leg and a single wide toe on each foot. The ankle’s double-axis design allowed for two degrees of movement. The knee had no complicating kneecap. Greenhill didn’t want the robot to use motors, so its movement was controlled using compressed air to extend and contract 28 “air-muscles”—his version of a McKibben muscle, invented in the 1950s to mimic musculature with pneumatics. The muscles were connected to the bones across eight joints (hips, knees, ankles, toes), which provided 12 degrees of freedom. RELATED: The Short, Strange Life of the First Friendly Robot The robot’s headless torso held the control valves, electronics, and computer interfaces. It stood 168 centimeters tall and 46 cm wide and weighed about 38 kilograms. The group managed to get the robot to stand up reliably and balance itself; it could even regain its center if pushed a little. But walking turned out to be more of a challenge. Rich Walker joined the group as a teenager and began writing software to get the robot to stand. He was particularly interested in using neural networks to solve balancing problems, although he ran into a number of hardware obstacles, including the unreliability of the sensors and the valves, and the robot’s overall fragility. Over time, Walker and the team developed a standard library of routines to control the robot. Walker wrote a detailed description of the Shadow Walker in 1999, which is available on David Buckley’s website. The 1st International Robot Olympics By the time the Shadow Group began developing Shadow Walker, engineers in academia and industry had been working on robotics for several decades. The world’s first industrial robot, the Unimate, debuted in 1961, and in 1967 Donald Michie and others began building a series of Freddy robots to investigate machine intelligence. The IEEE created its first dedicated robotics organization in 1984 when it established the IEEE Robotics and Automation Council, which became the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society in 1987. Also in 1987, the nonprofit International Federation of Robotics was established to promote research, development, use, and cooperation in the field of robotics. As Shadow Walker pushed the limits for a DIY humanoid robot, industrial humanoids were also gaining ground. In 1986, Honda began working on its experimental (E-series) and later the prototype (P-series) humanoid robots, finally unveiling the P2 in 1996. The P2 stood 183 cm tall and weighed 210 kg. It was the first humanoid capable of stable, autonomous walking. This work eventually led to the development of the groundbreaking ASIMO. Greenhill’s friend, roboticist David Buckley, consulted medical textbooks to create Shadow Walker’s humanoid design.Richard Greenhill and David Buckley In the late 1980s, the public was both fascinated and horrified by the potential of robots. Businesses saw robots as a way to increase productivity, while workers worried they would take their jobs. Children viewed them as wondrous toys, while people with disabilities embraced them as tools of liberation. Military experts hoped robots would fight wars without endangering human soldiers, while politicians pondered if robots might eventually get to vote. Philosophers thought robots could challenge our notions of intelligence (and stupidity), while the religious struggled with concerns about the human race in a robot-dominated future. Shadow Walker’s simplified anatomy included only one bone in the lower leg and a single wide toe on each foot.Science Museum Group Peter Mowforth, cofounder of the Turing Institute in Glasgow, noted these disparate visions for robots when he announced the 1st International Robot Olympics, to be held in 27 and 28 September 1990 and hosted by the Turing Institute and the University of Strathclyde. The Olympics would round up the world’s best robots and showcase them head-to-head. Mowforth himself thought all of the competing visions of robots were overblown. Steeped in machine learning research and robotics development, he knew firsthand the limitations of the state of the art: Robots rarely worked as intended, easily broke down, and glitched over seemingly trivial problems. He envisioned the Robot Olympics as a testbed to assess what the latest generation of robots could and could not do. At the 1990 Robot Olympics, held in Glasgow, Shadow Walker wore pants to conceal its pneumatic “air-muscles” from competitors.Adam Hart-Davis/Science Source The call for participation was wide open. Instead of having predetermined categories of competition, the organizers opted to see who applied to compete and then group them based on their claimed capabilities. In addition to picking the winners of individual events, the judges would select an overall Olympic champion based on the quality of the hardware, the sophistication of behavior, and novelty. Other prizes were given for young competitors, technologies that showed commercial potential, and design. In the end, more than 50 robots were entered, from a mix of universities, industry, and hobbyist groups from Canada, France, India, Japan, Mexico, the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia. There were plenty of disappointments. Trolleyman, a golf-cart-like wheeled robot, suffered a power failure while carrying the opening Olympic torch through the streets of Glasgow. The pile rug in the arena tripped up many robots that had been trained only on flat, smooth floors. David Buckley later concluded that the events were too difficult, and that the Olympics didn’t push development forward. Of course, there were winners. In a surprise triumph for vintage technology, the fully mechanical 19th-century Japanese Archer from the Museum of Automata in York, England, won gold in javelin, beating out competitors more than 100 years its junior. The overall Olympic Champion was Yamabico, Shoji Suzuki’s entry from the University of Tsukuba, in Japan, which won bronze in obstacle avoidance and gold in wall following, but was disqualified in the talking category for not speaking English. The Shadow Group had high hopes for Shadow Walker. Unfortunately, though, it failed to take a step, and the biped race was won by the Cardiff University Biped. Shadow Walker now resides in the collections of the Science Museum in London. The Legacy of Shadow Walker In 1997, a paying customer in search of a robotic leg compelled the Shadow Group to get serious and become a registered company. Shadow Robot is now Britain’s oldest robotics company. Rich Walker, who had left the Shadow Group to earn a B.A. in mathematics and a diploma in computer science at the University of Cambridge, joined Shadow Robot in 1999 as technical director. Today he’s the director of the company. Shadow Robot specializes in durable robot hands rather than walking robots. But the focus on hands is also a legacy of the Shadow Group. Walker remembers that the Shadow Group’s first humanoid hand in the late 1990s was impressive simply for being able to pick up a pint of beer (a smooth-sided, thin-walled glass). Today, Shadow Robot’s hands are testbeds for dexterity. Gone are the pneumatic muscles, replaced by actuators that move each finger with precision. The classic model contains 20 motors, allowing for abductive and adductive movement with 24 degrees of freedom. Shadow Walker’s operator wore a data suit that captured his movements and allowed the robot to copy them.Richard Greenhill In a recent blog post, Sejal Parsotomo, senior marketing executive at Shadow Robot, wrote that while humanoid robots are great for public relations, specialized dexterity is key for success: A robot that can walk into your factory may be impressive, but a robot that can reliably manipulate objects is transformative. In its struggles to take more than a few steps, the Shadow Walker showed the inherent difficulty that robots had in mastering even low-level skills. In August 2025, Beijing hosted the World Humanoid Robot Games. Competing in sports such as gymnastics, soccer, and track events, as well as more “useful” tasks like hotel cleaning and sorting medicine, these robots could literally have run circles around the competitors in the first Robot Olympics 35 years earlier. And yet, there is still so much work needed in order for robots to navigate the human-built environment. Despite the astonishing progress, we’re still not all that close to actually useful humanoid robots. Part of a continuing series looking at historical artifacts that embrace the boundless potential of technology. An abridged version of this article appears in the June 2026 print issue as “Learning to Walk.” References Richard Greenhill gives an overview of his life and the founding of the Shadow Group in a post on Shadow Robot’s corporate website. David Buckley has a compilation of resources on the Shadow Biped Walker, including specifications from the 1999 iteration and a brochure from the 1st International Robot Olympics. There is coverage of the Robot Olympics worthy of a gossip sheet in La Repubblica and lovely footage of the competition in this TV-am interview of Peter Mowforth by Lorraine Kelly.
The district authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Naran have issued a travel advisory for Babusar Top, urging tourists, travellers, and transport operators to exercise caution and avoid unnecessary travel due to persistent snowfall and hazardous road conditions. The district administration, with a special travel advisory on media platforms, stated that ongoing snowfall across the region is expected to create severe difficulties for travellers. It urged all visitors to verify weather updates before planning any movement towards the mountain pass. According to the advisory, traffic on the Babusar Top route and adjoining areas has been significantly disrupted by continuous snow accumulation, with certain stretches currently restricted to one-way passage only. Officials cautioned that travel along the route becomes extremely hazardous after 6pm due to rapidly worsening snowfall intensity and sharply reduced visibility conditions. They further highlighted that icy surfaces, mechanical brake failures, glacial movements, rockfalls, and potential landslides collectively posed grave threats to both life and property. The administration appealed to tourists, transport operators, and the general public to avoid all non-essential journeys until further notice and to strictly comply with instructions issued by local authorities and law enforcement agencies. On Tuesday, police launched a search and strike operation for visitors’ safe travel in the upper parts of Kaghan Valley after traffic between KP and Gilgit-Baltistan resumed following a suspension of over six months. The Mansehra-Naran-Jalkhad Road, closed to traffic in November last year, had been cleared of glaciers and snow, Balakot Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Sadaqat Nisar said. Earlier in the month, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued a glacial lake outburst floods (Glof) alert for the northern regions, asking disaster management authorities to ensure a round-the-clock vigil. Residents in glaciated valleys and vulnerable areas were advised to observe safety measures, including avoiding proximity to riverbanks and stream beds during rainfall, monitoring local nullahs for sudden changes in water colour (muddiness) or unusual sounds such as grinding rocks, and securing livestock and essentials on higher and safer ground.
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TOKYO (AP) -- Mechanical hands dexterous enough to thread a needle, childlike dancing robots and adult-sized ones to help with deliveries were on disp
Director Owen Harris, showrunner Ira Parker and stunt coordinator Rob Inch break down the grueling shoot behind the HBO prequel’s biggest action sequence.
US President Donald Trump said on May 29 that Iran must commit to never developing a nuclear weapon and ensure unrestricted shipping movement through the Strait of Hormuz, while indicating that discussions involving Tehran, Washington and international agencies were moving towards a possible understanding on key security issues in the region.In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the Strait of Hormuz should remain open without any restrictions or tolls for commercial shipping traffic in both directions. He also claimed that naval restrictions imposed earlier in the region would be lifted, allowing stranded ships to resume movement.Trump further said any water mines present in the strategic waterway would be removed or destroyed in coordination with Iranian authorities. He claimed that US naval operations had already neutralised several mines in the region.Also read | US inflation rises to 3.8% in April, highest level in nearly 3 years"The enriched material, sometimes referred to as “Nuclear Dust,” which is buried deep underground with virtually collapsed mountains, caused by our powerful B2 Bomber attack 11 months ago, sitting on top of it, will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED. No money will be exchanged, until further notice. Other items, of far less importance, have been agreed to," Trump's post read."I will be meeting now, in the Situation Room, to make a final determination. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" he signed off.The remarks come amid heightened geopolitical tensions in West Asia and renewed global concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme, maritime security and crude oil supply disruptions. The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical oil transit chokepoints, handling a significant share of global crude and LNG shipments.Any disruption in the waterway has historically triggered volatility in international oil markets and raised concerns among major energy-importing nations, including India.Also read | US goods trade deficit narrows in April on strong exportsTrump also referred to Iran’s enriched nuclear material, saying the stockpile buried underground after a previous US B-2 bomber strike would be excavated and destroyed under international supervision. He said the process would involve close coordination between the United States, Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).According to Trump, no financial exchange would take place as part of the proposed arrangement until further decisions are taken. He added that several other issues had also been agreed upon, though he did not elaborate on details.The former US president said he would meet officials in the Situation Room before taking a final decision on the matter.The comments assume significance as tensions between the US and Iran have remained elevated over Tehran’s nuclear activities, sanctions and regional security concerns. Recent developments in the Middle East have also intensified fears of escalation that could impact global trade routes and energy prices.International crude oil markets have remained highly sensitive to developments surrounding Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts have warned that any prolonged uncertainty in the region could affect fuel prices, shipping costs and supply chains globally.India, which imports a majority of its crude oil requirements, closely monitors developments in the Gulf region as volatility in oil prices has direct implications for inflation, fuel costs and the country’s trade balance.
CHIBA, Japan (Kyodo) -- A Japan Airlines passenger jet made an emergency landing at Narita airport near Tokyo on Friday due to a mechanical issue, wit
From Chanel’s patented tweed setting to IWC’s spaceflight-ready tool watch and Parmigiani Fleurier’s disappearing chronograph, these Watches and Wonders 2026 launches show how mechanical watchmaking is still pushing forward.
BAGUIO CITY — Five people, including two children, were killed after a six-wheeler truck carrying 39 passengers overturned Thursday morning along the Cong. Andres Acop Cosalan National Road in Barangay Poblacion, Kabayan, Benguet, authorities said. The truck figured in the accident at Sitio Guay in Poblacion after suffering an alleged mechanical failure, according to the
When the Electoral Act 2026 was passed into law in February 2026, the expectation was that it would be the deus ex machina (the fool-proof, mechanical, solution as in complex Greek tragedies of old) to Nigeria’s electoral problems since the return to civilian rule in 1999, but the newest law merely followed the old pattern, incomplete and […] The post Party primaries and accountability, By Reuben Abati appeared first on Premium Times Nigeria.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ruled that family courts should not convert a wife’s suit for dissolution of marriage on grounds of cruelty into a decree of khula without her explicit and informed consent, particularly when valuable financial rights such as unpaid dower are involved. Authored by Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan on behalf of a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, the observations came while hearing an appeal filed by Selab Akhtar against a decision of the Peshawar High Court that upheld concurrent findings of lower courts dissolving her marriage through khula and denying her full dower and past maintenance. “We hold,” the judgement said, “that khula should not ordinarily be granted without the wife’s consent or clear election where she had sued on grounds of cruelty and valuable financial rights were implicated.” However, where cruelty is not proved and marital life has manifestly collapsed, courts must give the wife an opportunity to choose whether to pursue dismissal of her claim or accept dissolution through khula upon lawful terms, rather than compelling restoration of a relationship that has effectively ceased to exist, Justice Hassan observed. Cautions against setting unrealistic standards for proof of cruelty, especially when unpaid dower is involved “The proper judicial course is neither to impose khula without consent nor to mechanically dismiss the matter while ignoring matrimonial breakdown,” the judgement emphasised. The dispute arose from a matrimonial case between Selab Akhtar and Quwat Khan. The couple married on Sept 19, 2016, in Swat’s Matta tehsil, where 30 tolas of gold were fixed as haq mehr. According to the petitioner, after marriage she was subjected by her husband and his family members to harsh treatment, coercion, humiliation, cruelty and mental torture, making continuation of matrimonial life impossible. She alleged she was expelled from the house without justification and denied maintenance. Consequently, she filed a suit before Judge Family Court-II, Swat, seeking dissolution of marriage on grounds of cruelty, recovery of 30 tolas of gold as dower or its market value, and maintenance allowance from the date of neglect until disposal of the suit. The principal question before the SC was whether a family court could dissolve a marriage through khula where the wife had sought dissolution on grounds of cruelty but failed to substantiate the allegations through legally admissible evidence, despite expressing unwillingness to continue the marriage. The court also examined whether such relief could be granted when no specific prayer for khula had been made and no express consent had been recorded. Justice Hassan observed that the controversy was not merely whether the marriage should stand dissolved, but the legal consequences flowing from a failed cruelty claim where the wife nevertheless refused to continue the marital bond. The verdict explained that where cruelty or statutory fault on the part of the husband is established, the wife ordinarily can’t be compelled to forfeit her dower merely to secure freedom from an oppressive union. In contrast, dissolution through khula ordinarily involves relinquishment or restitution of financial consideration, including dower to the extent recognised by law. The SC observed when a wife approaches the court alleging cruelty, she is effectively seeking a declaration that the husband’s conduct disentitles him from retaining reciprocal marital rights, including unpaid dower. “To convert such claim, without due regard to the nature of relief pursued, into one of khula may prejudice valuable financial rights,” it emphasised. At the same time, the court observed that judges cannot ignore situations where a marriage has irretrievably broken down in fact. If cohabitation has ceased, bitterness has deepened and the wife unequivocally refuses to resume marital life, the law cannot compel parties to continue a “dead relationship” merely in name. The judgement also criticised the approach adopted by subordinate courts in assessing allegations of cruelty. It noted that courts often insist on standards of proof ill-suited to the realities of matrimonial life, such as requiring independent eyewitnesses to domestic abuse, FIRs for confinement or medical certificates in every case of physical assault. “Such an approach overlooks that marriage is essentially a private relationship conducted within the walls of a home,” the judgement said, adding that women may seldom be in a position to procure independent witnesses to acts of humiliation, coercion, emotional torment or mental agony occurring within the domestic sphere. According to the verdict, matrimonial disputes should be decided on the civil standard of “preponderance of probabilities”, taking into account conduct of the parties, surrounding circumstances, consistency of versions and overall probabilities emerging from the record, rather than the strict proof required in criminal prosecutions. Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2026
“Social engineering” sounds like something out of a conspiracy thriller, charged with totalitarian control and fringe paranoia. More mundanely, it’s come to be associated with phishing and other scams, in which fraudsters manipulate people into disclosing personal information. Yet the concept is older and more benign: it is the deliberate shaping of human behavior, often at scale. It predates silicon—and became pervasive, and ungoverned, especially once its practitioners learned to hide it. Authoritarian regimes and more recently scammers and big companies have profited from it. To defend ourselves from bad actors, and to benefit from social engineering’s good side, we need to reclaim the name, and govern it prudently. The roots of engineering In 1894, Dutch entrepreneur Jacques van Marken urged companies to hire “social engineers” to manage human systems such as insurance, education, and profit sharing for workers as carefully as they did mechanical ones. Fifteen years later, reformer William H. Tolman published Social Engineering, describing how U.S. industrialists optimized workers’ conditions alongside manufacturing methods. If industrialists could shape steel and electricity on demand, why not society itself? By the 1920s, that confidence had spread. The architect Le Corbusier declared that dwellings were “machines for living in,” imagining cities as orderly lattices where people moved like parts on a conveyor belt. Civilization would run like a Swiss watch. The idea soon darkened. Authoritarian regimes pushed it to extremes, promising to fashion “the New Man.” In Nazi Germany, engineer Fritz Todt founded Organization Todt, a vast state engineering enterprise that emerged from the autobahn highway system and later operated concentration camps using slave labor. In the Soviet Union, leaders adopted U.S. scientific management techniques to plan factory-worker movements and classify populations through centralized records, feeding both rapid industrialization drives and the gulag system of forced labor. The same tools and managerial methods used to build highways and enact five-year plans worked for repression and mass control. By the 1950s, “social engineering” had become a contaminated phrase. The revelations of Nazi and Soviet abuses, along with Cold War critiques of grand social planning turned the term from a progressive slogan into a warning label. Banishing the words pushed the practice underground, making it harder to recognize when it resurfaced in new forms—such as organizational psychology and systems management that still relied on classification and behavioral influence techniques but under softer, less loaded labels. Social engineering’s more subtle spread In the postwar years, the new social-engineering lexicon included “human factors” and “urban planning,” all promising integration rather than command. As computing advanced, the language shifted again: “customer journey mapping” to track interactions, “user experience” to script them. Engineering, which began as a means of reshaping physical space, set its sights on shaping behavior. Digital design features embedded in our smartphones now target our attention and desire. Language helps conceal these modern forms of social engineering. “Data analytics” sounds neutral beside “surveillance.” “Personalization” flatters individuality while still sorting users into predictable categories. “Behavioral nudges” guide decisions without the sense of intrusion. We attach “social” as a favorable modifier to sciences, capital, and media, yet recoil when it meets “engineering.” That discomfort is a clue. Engineering implies control, and control prompts us to ask who directs whom, toward what ends, and with whose permission. Not all social engineering these days is hidden. Hackers don’t need to break a firewall if someone hands over their password. Romance scammers cultivate intimacy the way farmers cultivate crops. They succeed not through force but by exploiting trust. If even these obvious attacks work, the invisible kind, with roots in social engineering, are a shoo-in. Most of the social engineering we encounter is proprietary and beyond our control. Firms build recommendation algorithms tuned to boost engagement and profit with no hearings or right of appeal. Browser and cookie defaults decide what data we surrender. A single autoplay toggle can cost users hours and build unhealthy habits. These are acts of engineering as deliberate as laying a road or redrawing an electoral district. They create a kind of curated itch by which boredom never settles, and satisfaction never arrives. The results are predictable—users click on targeted ads, make purchases, form habits, and lock in opinions. Consent has transformed along with it. Once straightforward and revocable, it is now subtle and persistent, buried in defaults or opaque terms of service too quickly accepted. You remain free to opt out, much as you are free to refuse roads or electricity. Consent has become the preselected setting of modern life. When social engineering operated more in the open, citizens could contest it, at least in societies with responsive government. Today’s invisible version diffuses accountability so thoroughly that scrutiny becomes hard to direct. Despite recent congressional hearings on social media’s impact on youth mental health and juries agreeing that firms are knowingly designing algorithms that cause harm, pinpointing responsibility remains elusive. When the mechanism is buried inside a system used by billions, we cannot easily point to a single decision-maker or trace the precise moment of manipulation. Today’s social engineering is less overt and theatrical than its predecessors. Earlier versions arrived on public posters and loudspeakers for mass audiences. Today’s version is more intimate, delivered through personal devices and constant feeds tailored to the individual. The model succeeds because participation feels like freedom, not control. Not all social engineering is dystopian. Well-kept parks foster community, accessible buildings extend dignity, vaccines and seatbelts save lives. Even in the digital realm, positive examples exist: browser extensions that automatically block hidden trackers, search engines that refuse to build personalized surveillance profiles, and decentralized social platforms that give users greater control over their own data and feeds. The term “social engineering” still unsettles, though. But “asocial” engineering, which ignores human consequences entirely, is worse. Recognition of the human dimension to engineering is the beginning of repair. Only by seeing the machinery clearly and naming it honestly can we decide who engineers what and why. The machinery will not dismantle itself. Once named, it becomes subject to choice. That negotiation of purpose, power, and process are the defining political questions of any real democracy. We cannot ensure that social engineering serves and sustains society so long as we dodge the words.