Systems thinking and abstract thinking are important skills for engineers in general and hardware and software engineers in particular. Systems thinking emphasises the interdependence of system components and their synergy. Abstract thinking permits one to focus on the significant details of the current perspective, while temporarily neglecting…

There have been few discoveries in geology more important than "deep time"--the understanding that the universe has existed for countless millennia, such that man's existence is confined to the last milliseconds of the metaphorical geological clock. The influence of deep time is felt in a variety of sciences including geology, cosmology,…