Ok, then there is regulated engineering and unregulated engineering. If you are doing engineering and it's not regulated (for many different reasons) it does not make it any less engineering. Animals do engineering, insects go engineering, it is based on science (empirical), whether they know it or not.

We need to stop redefining terms.

> Animals do engineering, insects go engineering, it is based on science (empirical), whether they know it or not.

I've never heard "instinctively doing things without conscious choice" to be engineering. That opens it up so wide it's meaningless - is blinking to rewet my eyeballs engineering? How about farting to relieve internal pressure?

And "empirical" explicitly means you consciously understand the reasons, so your comment is self-contradictory as well. Basically, words have meanings and you don't seem to know them.