It is no surprise that, with so muc

It is no surprise that, with so much emphasis on digital circuitry these days, the design of analogue devices is becoming a serious problem. First, coming up with an efficient analogue circuit has as much to do with instinct as with physics. John Koza of Stanford University in California claims that analogue-circuit design is the domain of engineers “off in a room wearing purple hats with gold stars.” Second, engineers with the necessary skills are in short supply. Texas Instruments, for instance, needs to recruit 500 analogue engineers a year—more than the number that graduate from all the universities in America. Though machines may be developing minds of their own, it seems there is no immediate danger of the human mind becoming obsolete.