Oil and water.
Science vs Creationism? A mere tempest in a teapot.
Want to know what scares conservative politicians most? Communism? An informed populace? Tax reform? Nah. A geek with an idea and too much free time. (Only half snarking....)
For my money, one of the single largest changes in business practices in the last 50 years was the elimination of most secretaries. (Okay, the idea that an MBA made you more qualified for management than a solid background in a particular industry is an arguable second.) How many of you remember the typing pool? How many remember when being able to accurately type at least 55 wpm was the key to earning a pretty good living? How many older stories about business include the efficient secretary who, besides doing your typing, also served as your frontline defense against your own blatant stupidity?
All gone, now. Thank you, Bill Gates.
The steam locomotive, the horseless carriage, powered looms, electric light, solar energy, Velcro - each and every one of them has turned society on its ear (well, maybe not Velcro), and politicians have had to rush to catch up, while doing their very best to minimize the real impact of the changes in their fiefdoms.
It isn't that most engineers, or inventors, are social architects. Or even want to be. Far from it. Show us a really nifty problem, and most of us will dive right in yelling "Solve!", because that's just how we are. That's why we ended up doing this. It's just that when you solve a problem, you change things. Lots of things, some of which can be anticipated, but not most, especially when you get into second and third generation changes.
We know this. Some of us care quite a bit about unanticipated consequences, some not so much, but we know about them. We expect them. We also know that there are as many unanticipated consequences involved in not trying to solve problems, so we figure, when in doubt, try something new. Which generally leads us into the position of not liking conservative politicians all that much, either.
Oil and water, baby, oil and water.
Note: my apologies to all the various and sundry engineers and techies and programmers and general geeks this doesn't apply to. When I was younger and much more naive, I went into engineering because I was sure, via RAHeinlein, that engineers would save the world, and I've kept a considerable chunk of that viewpoint to this day. (As long as there's more engineers, and activists, and people of good will to clean up after the engineers get through turning things arsy-varsy.)