Palindrome of unknown origin Written language enables us to step outside of the implicit sequencing of time. Because the direction in which we normally read English is arbitrary, we can choose to read the letters backwards. That's why we create palindromes phrases that read the same, backwards and forwards. Not so engineering projects, because they happen inside time in real life. Life has a ratchet gear, which keeps us from backing up.
Every decision has consequences.
But that very metaphor is a powerful tool which we must learn to exploit. When we make a model of something, we gain understandings that are not available to us in any other way because it is as if we are standing outside of town. Even when we don't comprehend the workings of a process, if we can replicate it in some controllable fashion, we can experiment with it. We can try different branches of the decision tree, in an environment in which consequences are attenuated. That's why we build wind tunnels.