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> a simulated edge case involving "gamma rays from space"? People have nearly died because of exactly this situation. See, for example, Quantas Flight 72 [1],

> a simulated edge case involving "gamma rays from space"? People have nearly died because of exactly this situation. See, for example, Quantas Flight 72 [1], in which a pair of sudden, uncommanded pitch-down manoeuvres that caused severe injuries -- including fractures, lacerations and spinal injuries -- to several of the passengers and crew. A long and detailed investigation essentially concluded that these events were most likely caused by the CPUs not being sufficiently rad-hardened. The pilot was diagnosed with PTSD, caused in part by being totally out of control, and quit his career [2, 3]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_72 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_72 [2] https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-untold-story-of-qf72-what-happens-when-psycho-automation-leaves-pilots-powerless-20170511-gw26ae.html https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-untold-story-of-qf72-wh... [3] https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733339745/no-mans-land-the-untold-story-of-automation-and-qf72/ https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780733339745/no-mans-land-...

throw1222lak 7y ago
That's not what the Wikipedia links says: "A number of potential trigger types were investigated, including software bugs, software corruption, hardware faults, electromagnetic interference and the secondary high energy particles generated by cosmic rays. Although a definitive conclusion could not be reached, there was sufficient information from multiple sources to conclude that most of the potential triggers were very unlikely to have been involved. A much more likely scenario was that a marginal hardware weakness of some form made the units susceptible to the effects of some type of environmental factor, which triggered the failure mode." Cosmic rays would be a very convenient excuse. (Cue the ECC RAM lobby, which will probably downvote this.)

throw1222lak 7y ago

That's not what the Wikipedia links says: "A number of potential trigger types were investigated, including software bugs, software corruption, hardware faults, electromagnetic interference and the secondary high energy particles generated by cosmic rays. Although a definitive conclusion could not be reached, there was sufficient information from multiple sources to conclude that most of the potential triggers were very unlikely to have been involved. A much more likely scenario was that a marginal hardware weakness of some form made the units susceptible to the effects of some type of environmental factor, which triggered the failure mode." Cosmic rays would be a very convenient excuse. (Cue the ECC RAM lobby, which will probably downvote this.)