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No, it would be the materials scientists/engineers.

At least when I was studying optical engineering, we had to learn (and memorize, which annoyed me greatly) materials properties of different glasses, plastics, some gems like sapphire, etc. Obviously optical properties, but also thermal properties. Maybe some kind of stress thing; I don't remember. But also, we had to have some knowledge of which things cost lots of money. Which things are easier to manufacture with and what sorts of manufacturing techniques work with different materials. etc. I presume a working engineer just knows all of this stuff then.

Yes, and that's normal, and the things I mentioned working engineers often have opinions about and some are even well informed, but traditionally there'd be a skew of opinions and different levels of strength of those held. You could inform yourself about those options, test them, and over time become well informed yourself.

That's not really possible with frontier models changing every 3-6 months, just like javascript frameworks there's not enough time to learn the ins and outs and they mostly expose the same interface, so unless you have rigorous evals you are working on vibes, and the amount of meetings I have had in the last 3 years of engineers confidently reporting on their vibes is SO TIRING.

We should expect mechanical engineers to be aware of the limits of the physical world they're engineering for. It's not like we'd excuse making a design that called for a material with impossible properties just because they're not a materials scientist.

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