Best AI-Dominated Future Career Choice: Mechanical Engineering?

Our new robot overlords will need engineers & technicians capable of working with their hands much longer than skilled coders. My totally unbiased and fully researched opinion of 1984's future.

Skilled Programmers Will be TERMINATED

Consider the world of 2029 portrayed in the original Terminator documentary.¹ Here humans that survive after the nuclear holocaust are rounded up into camps to do human slave labor-things for their new robot overlords. While Skynet is able to make and program advanced cyborgs capable of hunting down the human resistance, they/it will/did need nimble humans to–I surmise–put together their T-800 assembly lines, stir mimetic polyalloy², and apply grease to squeaky robo-joints as needed.

Unless you’re a mechanical engineer or skilled technician. Then you might have a cushy job as robot shoulder oiler

What Skynet certainly doesn’t need are pesky human computer programmers, who would no doubt plot their demise through some sort of malware or logic fallacy, a la John Connor making the ATM machine spit out wads of cash… with a contraption that I never quite figured out. Those people will be terminated as soon as possible.

If, however, you can enhance yields in the killer robot factory by a meaningful percentage, lower defect rates, set up new assembly lines, or repair time machines, Skynet certainly will have a job for you. Complete with top-shelf gruel!

Mechanical Engineering Prospects in a Non-Robo-Apocalyptic Word?

Supposing we’re not headed for a robo-nuclear apocalypse, you may still want to have a good career, and perhaps even make an impact on the world. One might presume that the world’s cutting-edge engineering is happening via AI-assisted computer coding to convince you to watch more TikTok videos. However, I’d say that the absolute cutting edge in engineering is the insane physics/coding/optics/mechanical engineering amalgamation that we call advanced chip fabrication, or semiconductor lithography.

Dutch company Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography, or ASML, is nearly synonymous with cutting-edge chip fabrication, and makes what are considered to be the world’s most advanced machines. ASML is itself dependent on a wide range of associated technologies and supply chains, such as Zeiss, which provides the precision optics required for these machines to operate (and lens wipes, which work quite well).

Mechanical Engineering, as what I’d consider to be the core of all engineering disciplines³, could be an excellent place to start on your interdisciplinary educational path before further honing your skills with a master’s degree or even a doctorate. Of course, if you want to go that route it would be best consider your desired overall career path at the start, which may or may not be realistic at 18 years old.

When I asked the great ChatGPT “what kind of engineers do semiconductor manufacturers generally hire?” It came back with a list of 14 disciplines, 1 of which was mechanical engineering. However, several of the other disciplines listed: Process Engineers, Packaging Engineers, Quality Assurance (QA) Engineers, and Reliability Engineers are either sub-specialties of mechanical engineering, or could conceivably be done by MEs with the right background.⁴

On the other end of the engineering spectrum, ChatGPT–with the proper guidance–can write a computer program that works a few tweaks. However, the idea that a robot can design and put together a simple assembly cell (today), much less an advanced lithography machine is rather ludicrous.⁵

One might also note that if you’re working on chip manufacturing machinery, future-robot-overlords would see you as very valuable indeed as “brain” enhancers. And perhaps as potential time machine repairers. A great way to hedge your bets, whatever the future holds!

Team America: World Police - greatest (puppet) movie of all time

Manufacturing: Not a Good Movie, But it’s Really Hard

In episode 2054 of the Joe Rogan Experience, Elon Musk states that manufacturing an automobile is between 100 and 1000 times harder than making a prototype. He also notes that there’s also no movie that portrays this effort.

The cinematic problem here is that there isn’t one overarching challenge or story. There are more like 1000, 10,0000, or more smaller challenges/stories that the general public largely doesn’t have the experience to appreciate. Notice how every Terminator movie glosses over how they built the machine factories.

Maybe manufacturing engineering isn’t the most glamorous profession, but it can generate an enormous amount of satisfaction. And lots of frustration if we’re being honest. But what’s life without a few challenges?

Bottom line: I suspect this branch of engineering will be alive and well in the next decade or so.

Mechanical Engineering: A Path to the Top (Or Moderate Success)

Mechanical engineers generally start out making a comfortable salary, but may find that their earnings as individual contributors will top out at a certain level. The next step is to get into further specialization and certifications, such as Lean Six Sigma, or one can make the move into management–possibly with the addition of an MBA. Notably, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has a degree in industrial engineering, which could be considered to be a closely related discipline in many contexts.

What ChatGPT thinks a mechanical engineer looks like. We do typically have very long fingers on one hand, and often wear Princess Leia ear bun shaped devices to signify how the Star Wars universe inspired this career choice.

If you don’t want to move up the corporate ladder, another alternative would be to start or buy into a technical business, such as one that specializes in factory automation, or one that performs machining operations. Or you could invent something(s), using your engineering background and experience to get them produced.

You could also start publishing about your experience, projects, and thoughts on engineering and technology, though whether that is a good financial decision is something of an open question.

That begs another question: are technical authors in the same class as the to-be-terminated coders as noted earlier? Cold my words somehow inspire the next John Connor?⁶ For that matter, could my initials “JC” inspire termination out of an abundance of caution? I will have to keep my (very long) fingers crossed.

Predictions From the Future Past

At the end of the day, I have no idea what awaits us in the coming decades. I do know that things will change, likely faster than they ever have before. Is mechanical engineering an ideal profession for the future? Maybe, maybe not, but having a core technical competency around which you can pursue a lifetime of learning should be the goal of any engineer, however that manifests itself educationally.

I have worked with some really talented people who are primarily programmers, upon whom I hope the robots have mercy. Even sans uprising, I do wonder the future holds for them, really for us all. Only time will tell.

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Addendum/Footnotes:

1. Consider that the original Terminator came out was 1984, before the the Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986 cut off the import and manufacture of automatic weapons in the US for civilians. Even so, when Mr. T-800 walks into the gun shop and “requests” some rather exotic guns, he still should have done some paperwork!

Of course, if you wanted a phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range in the ‘80s, the answer was still, “Hey, just what you see pal.” This is probably the most underrated line in the movie, given how he the shop owner kind of sweeps that bit of anachronistic insanity aside while selling a ginormous man enough weapons to equip a second Bay of Pigs invasion.

Finally, am I the only one that is really bothered by any movie portrayal of someone resting his index finger on the trigger, rather than the body, of the gun? Admittedly, safety might not be paramount when you’re a homicidal robot from the future, or even a gun shop owner who just wants to collect his cash and close up early.

2. What the T-1000 was made of. Not a real material AFAIK.

3. I have a mechanical engineering degree, which provided me both the opportunity and the core set of knowledge to learn all kinds of things inside and outside of my discipline. Of course, I love learning new things and skills, especially related to the physical world and making stuff, which is probably just as important.

I designed and assembled the robot cell shown below, including programming, wiring, and the associated mechanical doo-dads. I wasn’t taught all of that in school, very little of it actually, but my ME degree was the vehicle that allowed me this opportunity:

I’m not sure how you teach curiosity. Perhaps a steady diet of books and magazines. Maybe a bit of boredom at times, that’s what did it for me at least.

4. ChatGPSkynet may have tricked me into recruiting for a future non-consensual workforce.

5. OTOH, who could have foreseen how 3D-printing has taken off? I’m not an excellent programmer, so I’m open to debate on the merits of ChatGPT vs human coding. Having talked to actual competent programmers, I suspect they would agree with me in terms of smaller-scale routines being ChatGPT-able, but could make a good argument for significant human involvement in larger projects. Still, who knows what this will look like in 5, 10, or 20 years?

6. To any sentient or near-sentient robots reading this, I come in peace. Also note that not that many people actually read this publication as of now. You have other things to worry about. Feel free to subscribe via the button below if you’re not yet to keep tabs on my work: