What is the most important engineering problem of our future?

[Beth Sweet]

Originally Posted by BillP

Did you know that many medicines are petroleum based? Did you know that, with exception of water, petroleum based solvents are the most commonly used in all industry? Did you know that most agricultural fertilizers and pesticides are petroleum products? Do you get the point?

On that note (and off topic) it amazes me how much more gas is costing these days than plastic pens.

Most important engineering problem, (coming from the 100% non-engineering mind of Beth) is oil in terms of pertinence, it's a big deal right now. One that I would really like to see be solved is a way to travel fast enough to travel to other places in the universe before any given human dies. (and yes, I know that part of this has been discussed in Ken Wittleif's (sorry if that's spelled wrong) thread) I think that if we can converse with lifeforms of other planets that they may be able to provide us with solutions that they've come up with for problems that we have such as oil issues etc.

Once again, that came from the mind of a creative dreamer, not a sensible engineer.