Engineers (Gary Numan track)

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"Engineers" is a Gary Numan song, probably based on the novel The Penultimate Truth by Philip K Dick, which is about people who work in underground shelters as engineers building robots for the ruling classes up above. In his autobiography, Numan says "The engineers keep them running and feel very bitter because they live in darkness, never coming to the surface or being allowed to use the roads themselves."

It is possible that Numan mis-remembered his original influence for this song, as his description closely matches the plotline of The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein.

The lyrics to "Engineers" (All that we are / Is all that you’d love to be / All that we know / Is hate and machinery / We’re engineers) are considered anthemic by certain professions, particularly lower level computer service engineers, as they describe the job of maintaining balky equipment for often ungrateful or indifferent customers, especially other computer people or "proper" engineers who believe themselves superior to lowly "computer monkeys". This is apt as the song does seem to refer to service personnell generally and their position in the technological heirarchy.