> Anyway, I don't find this a compelling argument against allowing mechanical failures. Manufacturers these days understand the trade-offs between cost to manuf

> Anyway, I don't find this a compelling argument against allowing mechanical failures. Manufacturers these days understand the trade-offs between cost to manufacture, part reliability, and tolerance of failure. I fully agree - my point was not to anthropomorphize machines. However, as you said, manufacturers understand the trade-offs, and for "industrial-grade" products, they prioritize having longer Mean time to failure compared to consumer goods. MTTF is sometimes baked into the contract/warrantees since any downtime is money lost - McDonald's can't take the fry machine offline and continue serving 95% of their meals