On reflections [Reflections]

I´ve written a bimonthly Reflections column for IEEE Spectrum since January 1982. Every eight weeks I´ve faced a blank computer screen as a deadline approached and had little or no idea what I could write about. I thought that after the first dozen or so columns I would use up all the topics worthy of essays, but it seems that there have always been emerging subjects as well as evergreen ones. These columns have accompanied Spectrum through much of the half-century of publication that we celebrate this year. Looking back on this collection, I´ve tried to see how the columns have evolved and what this says about how engineers and engineering have changed.