I pen these words under the specter of great suffering. If scientific predictions are accurate, this guest editorial will be published in a time of global catastrophic loss of lives and possibly collapse of systems we have taken for granted. I hope we discover that the power of collective, caring human action and nature's resilience transcend the limits of our scientific models. At a minimum, we will find ourselves in the wake of a planetary interruption in “business as usual.”

Many are not surprised by this moment, a moment when the global‐scale environmental volatility, technologically amplified by our consumption of fossil fuels, visibly maps into our socioeconomic existence. The coronavirus has illuminated a simple truth for us that decades of warnings could not: Our fates as living beings are inextricably interconnected through air, water and our habits of commerce; we have been participating in a living (or dying) commons, whether we believe it, accept it or decry it as a hoax.

An invisible messenger proclaims the truth. Our frail powers of assertion, no matter the depths of our personal convictions, do not control Nature. Nature is life itself. Contrary to the belief of Francis Bacon, the father of the western scientific method, Nature is not a female who hides her secrets from men, “something to be vexed and tortured [to]. . .continue [as] the compliant slave of man” (White, 1968). Nature has responded to our efforts to dominate with a terrible mercy: a forced disruption so we might see with perfect vision all that our busy‐ness obscures.

In our sudden stillness, systemic inequities appear in stark relief. The most privileged are sequestered, safely working in our homes, while others must work outside the home, even if sick. Those at work are those whose work is deemed essential to society. Ironically, they receive minimal wages for their essential services. For some, the pandemic threatens their lives; many will tragically lose. Simultaneously, the natural world retrieves some of its vitality in only weeks of our economic stillness (Gardiner, 2020; Rust, 2020; Watts & Kommenda, 2020).

We see clearly now, that “problems” do not exist in Nature; they are man‐made. And because we live in an engineered world, I cannot help but soberly recognize this pandemic moment as among the fruits of my well‐intentioned, engineering education labors. As William Perry, the chair of the NAE Grand Challenges Committee, suggested in 2008, our greatest engineering challenge in the 21st century is to save the world from the perils that our 20th century technology has enabled (Faculty News, 2008). The idea of engineering as a savior regrettably feeds hubris (Bauschpies, Holbrook, Douglas, Lambrinidou, & Lewis, 2018), yet points to something true about responsibility. Because our world is more a dynamically complex system than a simple one, what we are experiencing emerges from our collective human action rather than from a single bad actor; we are active participants, and technology undeniably functions as a lever that amplifies consequences, intended or not. What are we in engineering education to learn from this moment?

I am aware that privilege enables me to reflect on this question rather than being consumed in a fight for my or my community's survival. With humility, I soberly invite the reader to spend some of our privilege with me, reflecting on what could be. I invite you to imagine that 2020 is indeed the year of perfect vision. Let us go into the future. From this future, we can look back on what we saw in 2020 and how these insights put us on a transformational path to a shared planetary existence of thriving for all.

我在极大的痛苦的幽灵中写下这些话。如果科学的预测是准确的，那么这篇客座社论将在全球灾难性的人员伤亡和我们认为理所当然的系统崩溃的时候发表。我希望我们发现，集体关怀，人类行动和自然复原力的力量超越了我们科学模型的极限。至少，在“一切照旧”的星球中断之后，我们会发现自己。

此刻，许多人并不感到惊讶，这一刻，全球性的环境动荡，由于我们对化石燃料的消耗而在技术上得到放大，明显地反映了我们的社会经济存在。冠状病毒为我们阐明了一个简单的事实，那就是数十年的警告无法做到：我们的命运通过空气，水和我们的贸易习惯而紧密地联系在一起；我们一直在参与一个活的（或垂死的）公地，不管我们相信，接受还是谴责它是骗局。

一个看不见的使者宣扬真理。无论我们的个人信念有多深，我们断言的虚弱力量都无法控制自然。自然就是生命本身。与西方科学方法之父弗朗西斯·培根（Francis Bacon）的信念相反，自然不是一位女性，她向男性隐藏了自己的秘密，“这是要遭受折磨和折磨的东西。” 。“继续作为人类的顺从奴隶”（怀特，1968年）。大自然以一种可怕的怜悯回应了我们为统治而做出的努力：一次被迫破坏，因此我们可能会以完美的眼光看到我们忙碌所掩盖的一切。

在我们突然停滞不前的时候，系统性的不平等出现了。特权最高的人被隔离，可以安全地在我们的家中工作，而其他人则必须在家外工作，即使生病了。从事工作的人是那些被认为对社会至关重要的人。具有讽刺意味的是，他们获得基本服务的最低工资。对于某些人来说，大流行威胁着他们的生命；许多人将惨遭惨败。同时，自然界仅在我们经济不景气的几周内就恢复了部分活力（Gardiner，2020； Rust，2020； Watts＆Kommenda，2020）。

现在我们清楚地看到，自然界中不存在“问题”；它们是人造的。而且由于我们生活在一个工程化的世界中，所以我不禁清醒地认识到这一大流行时刻是我精心策划的工程教育工作的成果之一。正如NAE大挑战委员会主席William Perry在2008年所建议的那样，我们在21世纪面临的最大工程挑战是拯救世界，摆脱我们20世纪技术带来的危险（Faculty News，2008年）。令人惊讶的是，工程学是救世主的想法（Bauschpies，Holbrook，Douglas，Lambrinidou，＆Lewis，2018），但指向责任的真实含义。因为我们的世界是一个动态复杂的系统，而不是一个简单的系统，所以我们所经历的是人类集体行动的结果，而不是单个不良行为者的结果。我们是积极的参与者，而技术无疑会起到放大后果的作用，无论是否预期。从这一刻起我们在工程教育中要学什么？

我知道特权使我能够思考这个问题，而不是为了争取自己或社区的生存而被消耗。谦虚地，我清醒地邀请读者与我们一起享受我们的一些特权，对可能发生的事情进行思考。我邀请您想象一下，2020年确实是理想之年。让我们走向未来。从这个未来，我们可以回顾一下我们在2020年所看到的一切，以及这些见解如何使我们走上一条通往所有人共同繁荣的共同星球生存的转型之路。