3 ms·
Related is William Gibson's idea of "the Jackpot", or a "multicausal appocalypse", where a large catastrophe is caused not by a single major factor but by sever
by networked 10y ago
Related is William Gibson's idea of "the Jackpot", or a "multicausal appocalypse", where a large catastrophe is caused not by a single major factor but by several smaller ones accumulating and interacting over time. Gibson talks about it in https://vimeo.com/116132074 https://vimeo.com/116132074.
If this is the kind of thing you find interesting, you should also read How Complex Systems Fail (http://web.mit.edu/2.75/resources/random/How%20Complex%20Systems%20Fail.pdf http://web.mit.edu/2.75/resources/random/How%20Complex%20Sys...).
- impl 10y agoA good book in this space is Normal Accidents[0], which describes (among others) the impressive cumulative failure that caused the Three Mile Island incident. Fascinating read and applicable to software systems as well. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_Accidents