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Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies: Difference between revisions
Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies (view source)
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===When Kramer hears about this ...=== | ===When Kramer hears about this ...=== | ||
[[File:Shit | [[File:Shit fan.jpg|400px|thumb|right|Kramer hearing about this, yesterday.]] | ||
So far, so hoopy; but here’s the rub: we can make our systems less complex and ''reduce'' [[tight coupling]] by careful design, functional redundancy and iterative improvement — [[air crash|air transport has become progressively safer]] as it has developed: it has learned from each accident — but, as long as it is a complex system with the scope for complex interaction, ''we cannot eliminate [[system accident]]s altogether''. They are, as coders like to joke, a feature, not a bug. | So far, so hoopy; but here’s the rub: we can make our systems less complex and ''reduce'' [[tight coupling]] by careful design, functional redundancy and iterative improvement — [[air crash|air transport has become progressively safer]] as it has developed: it has learned from each accident — but, as long as it is a complex system with the scope for complex interaction, ''we cannot eliminate [[system accident]]s altogether''. They are, as coders like to joke, a feature, not a bug. | ||
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!Linear | !Linear | ||
!Complex | !Complex | ||
| | {{aligntop}} | ||
|Tight | | Rowspan="2" |Tight | ||
|Examples | |Examples | ||
|Dams, power grids, rail transport, marine transport | |Dams, power grids, rail transport, marine transport | ||
|Nuclear power plants, DNA, chemical plants, aircraft, space missions, BANKS | |Nuclear power plants, DNA, chemical plants, aircraft, space missions, BANKS | ||
{{aligntop}} | |||
|Control method | |Control method | ||
|'''Centralisation''': Best to deal with chain reactions, and best to deal with visible, expected linear reactions | |'''Centralisation''': Best to deal with chain reactions, and best to deal with visible, expected linear reactions | ||
|'''Centralisation''': best to deal with chain reactions once they happen: | |'''Centralisation''': best to deal with chain reactions once they happen: | ||
Local control: best to deal with non-linear reactions and unexpected events as they happen. | Local control: best to deal with non-linear reactions and unexpected events as they happen. | ||
| | {{aligntop}} | ||
|Loose | |Rowspan="2" |Loose | ||
|Examples | |Examples | ||
|Manufacturing, single-purpose agencies | |Manufacturing, single-purpose agencies | ||
|Mining, Research and development, multi-purpose agencies, universities | |Mining, Research and development, multi-purpose agencies, universities | ||
{{aligntop}} | |||
|Control method | |Control method | ||
|'''Centralisation or local control''': Few complex interactions; component failures create predictable results, and can be managed centrally. | |'''Centralisation or local control''': Few complex interactions; component failures create predictable results, and can be managed centrally. | ||