Read "Wolfbane" by Frederik Pohl online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Engineering had long ago come to an end.
Engineering is possible under one condition of the equation: Total available Calories divided by Population equals Artistic-Technological Style. When the ratio Calories-to-Population is large -- say, five thousand or more, five thousand daily calories for every living person -- then the Artistic-Technological Style is _big_. People carve Mount Rushmore; they build great foundries; they manufacture enormous automobiles to carry one housewife half a mile for the purchase of one lipstick.