if you could change one thing in the past to do with engineering what would it be?

Question: if you could change one thing in the past to do with engineering what would it be?
- Keywords:
  history,
  opinion
Asked by Baby Blue to Hilly, Lee, Liz, Tadhg, Yasmin on 15 Jun 2015.
- Lee Margetts answered on 15 Jun 2015:
  
  @Baby Blue – around 1900, engineers had three options to power cars: (1) steam power, (2) the internal combustion engine (petrol) and battery packs (electricity). If I could go back in time and give them a nudge, I’d persuade the engineers of the time to focus on battery powered cars. We’d probably be a little behind the curve of global warming if we’d had 100 years of electric cars instead of petrol driven ones.
- Yasmin Ali answered on 15 Jun 2015:
  
  I would put more effort into engineering solutions for farming of crops rather than animals. People (especially in the western world and USA!) eat way too much meat, and farming of animals contributes a lot to climate change and takes up land that would be better used for growing crops or forests.
- Tadhg O'Donovan answered on 17 Jun 2015:
  
  Apparently in 1899, the Commissioner of US patent office said: “everything that can be invented has been invented” – I’d probably advise him to not make silly statements 🙂
  
  He’d say – “Why not…”
  I’d say – “People will make fun of you on the internet”
  He’d say – “what’s the internet….”
  I’d say – “Point proven” and get back in my time machine 🙂

Question: if you could change one thing in the past to do with engineering what would it be?