Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by

Question

Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function, their dimensions and appearance, were determined by technologists, artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers—using non-scientific modes of thought. Many features and qualities of the objects that a technologist thinks about cannot be reduced to unambiguous verbal descriptions; they are dealt with in the mind by a visual, nonverbal process. In the development of Western technology, it has been non-verbal thinking, by and large, that has fixed the outlines and filled in the details of our material surroundings. Pyramids, cathedrals, and rockets exist not because of geometry or thermodynamics, but because they were first a picture in the minds of those who built them.
The creative shaping process of a technologist’s mind can be seen in nearly every artifact that exists. For example, in designing a diesel engine, a technologist might impress individual ways of nonverbal thinking on the machine by continually using an intuitive sense of rightness and fitness. What would be the shape of the combustion chamber? Where should the valves be placed? Should it have a long or short piston? Such questions have a range of answers that are supplied by experience, by physical requirements, by limitations of available space, and not least by a sense of form. Some decisions, such as wall thickness and pin diameter, may depend on scientific calculations, but the nonscientific component of design remains primary.
Design courses, then, should be an essential element in engineering curricula. Nonverbal thinking, a central mechanism in engineering design, involves perceptions, the stock-in-trade of the artist, not the scientist. Because perceptive processes are not assumed to entail “hard thinking,” nonverbal thought is sometimes seen as a primitive stage in the development of cognitive processes and inferior to verbal or mathematical thought. But it is paradoxical that when the staff of the Historic American Engineering Record wished to have drawings made of machines and isometric views of industrial processes for its historical record of American engineering, the only college students with the requisite abilities were not engineering students, but rather students attending architectural schools.
If courses in design, which in a strongly analytical engineering curriculum provide the background required for practical problem-solving, are not provided, we can expect to encounter silly but costly errors occurring in advanced engineering systems. For example, early models of high-speed railroad cars loaded with sophisticated controls were unable to operate in a snowstorm because a fan sucked snow into the electrical system. Absurd random failures that plague automatic control systems are not merely trivial aberrations; they are a reflection of the chaos that results when design is assumed to be primarily a problem in mathematics.

24. Which of the following statements would best serve as an introduction to the passage?
(A) The assumption that the knowledge incorporated in technological developments must be derived from science ignores the many non-scientific decisions made by technologists.
(B) Analytical thought is no longer a vital component in the success of technological development.
(C) As knowledge of technology has increased, the tendency has been to lose sight of the important role played by scientific thought in making decisions about form, arrangement, and texture.
(D) A movement in engineering colleges toward a technician’s degree reflects a demand for graduates who have the nonverbal reasoning ability that was once common among engineers.
(E) A technologist thinking about a machine, reasoning through the successive steps in a dynamic process, can actually turn the machine over mentally.

Hi Guys,

Can we please discuss this question? Request you to include your reasoning for a particular choice.

Many thanks

icandy · Answer

My pick is A

The passage starts off saying that many objects are influenced by science but designed by T's.

A is in line by saying that many people think that science and knowledge are responsible for the inventions and ignore non scientific decisions of the T's

rpmodi · Answer

E .

I was between A & E , eliminated A because author does not mention anything about common belief relating to technological development .

icandy · Answer

Many objects in daily use have  clearly been influenced by science, but their form and function,  their dimensions and appearance, were determined by technologists, artisans, designers, inventors, and engineers—using non-scientific modes of thought.

The above bold part made me feel that people look at the influence of science and that influence is so strong that they ignore where F, F and D came from

The Question asks about the introduction of the passage. I understood it as what would precede the start of the passage. A explains an assumption many people make and then the passage demystifies the general assumption held by people

What is the OA?

VerbalBot · Answer

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Many objects in daily use have clearly been influenced by

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