And what sort of society would scientistic, philistine carpenters, architects, and engineers build? What would even motivate them to get out of bed in the morning without the arts that explore the value of life? What would a purely STEM culture be like, with no philosophy, religion, art, history, or self-reflection of any kind?

Just one of building every possible technological application of scientific explanations, I suppose. Technology, of course, is a means to an end. But if those who ponder our human ends are mere dispensable “screws,” your STEM anti-culture would be a world of infinite means with no known ends or trusted direction. An absurd dystopia which you can read about in Orwellian and Kafkaesque science fiction.

How bizarre that you think the upshot of my writings is that we should all be screws or pawns. Do you know how many articles I’ve written about the importance of human creativity? It’s kind of my thing.

You speak of a carpenter’s “design” and an architect’s “vision.” Do you understand that architecture used to be a theocratic enterprise? Architects and artisans were thought to possess mystical powers which they kept secret in their guilds. That’s where their vision came from; it was an art, an anomalous kind of creativity that enables us to humanize our natural environment.

Of course, architecture was long ago professionalized and demystified, but the point is that sciences begin or develop as artistic explorations. Pick a science and you’ll see that it began as philosophical speculation or as some other art or religious practice. So your philistine cultural imperialism is asinine and self-defeating.

Do you think the STEM practitioners are the ones screwing the hapless humanities students? No, that’s short-sighted. Automation of labour and the invention of AI will replace your precious carpenters and engineers along with the creative class. The STEM handiwork might then screw all humanity, thanks to the vacuous anti-culture of the headless, artless drones you admire.