The article's not silly. Leveson and Hamilton's works cover that explicitly. Start with Engineering a Safer World's Intent Specifications, move on to Safeware

The article's not silly. Leveson and Hamilton's works cover that explicitly. Start with Engineering a Safer World's Intent Specifications, move on to Safeware, and look at the attention that goes into writing the right TLA+ specs. Lists like "Government regulations, flaky hardware…" look a lot like the upper levels of the hierarchical control systems contemplated there. It didn't make it into a pop science piece, but it's absolutely core to the work at issue. You can get a copy of the book at http://sunnyday.mit.edu/safer-world/index.html http://sunnyday.mit.edu/safer-world/index.html .