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The most important thing I learned from studying engineering ethics/failure analysis is that most major failures are caused by an accumulation of tiny failures

The most important thing I learned from studying engineering ethics/failure analysis is that most major failures are caused by an accumulation of tiny failures (of both process and material) that, while not individually disastrous, collaborate to cause enormous damage. The "academic" engineering failures (Challenger explosion, Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Therac-25) all had that in common, as did the 747-MAX issue and this.

H8crilA 6y ago
How Complex Systems Fail https://how.complexsystems.fail/ https://how.complexsystems.fail/
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  Engineering a Safer World by Leveson [0], as well. Goes into great detail about these ideas, how to model them, and how to build safety into systems deliberately rather than as an afterthought. [0] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world
DetroitThrow 6y ago
I wish engineering education paid dues to _engineering processes_ that cause situations like you listed above. I wonder what kind of process failure happened in Lebanon.
- InitialLastName 6y ago
  As far as I know, ABET still requires an Engineering Ethics course (that will certainly cover the canonical examples) for their accreditation. That's a good start (it's certainly where I got my start in thinking about those issues).
ghastmaster 6y ago
The same logic holds true for gun safety. A person usually has to make two mistakes in order to have a negligent discharge. For example if you fail to engage the safety and then pull the trigger accidentally, you made two mistakes.
- InitialLastName 6y ago
  Yeah, that's a pretty canonical example, since the safety is the bit of the system designed to keep the other bits from doing accidental damage.
boilerupnc 6y ago
Not just limited to engineering, you also just described one hypothesis for the manifestation of biological cancers through systems biology. "Most solid tumors arise from a spectrum of genetic, epigenetic, and chromosomal alterations. [...] molecular alterations can be classified by dysfunction in as many as six different regulatory systems that must be perturbed for a normal cell to become cancerous [...] The mere recognition of cancer as a systems biology disease is a key first step. This hypothesis views the individual defects observable in solid tumors cumulatively as system failures either at the cellular or multicellular level." [0] [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2666950/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2666950/ [1] http://news.mit.edu/2017/cells-combat-chromosome-imbalance-0619 http://news.mit.edu/2017/cells-combat-chromosome-imbalance-0...
phonon 6y ago
Yeah...watch NTSB Board meetings...it's a recurring theme. https://www.youtube.com/user/NTSBgov/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/NTSBgov/videos

H8crilA 6y ago

How Complex Systems Fail https://how.complexsystems.fail/ https://how.complexsystems.fail/

Jtsummers 6y ago
Engineering a Safer World by Leveson [0], as well. Goes into great detail about these ideas, how to model them, and how to build safety into systems deliberately rather than as an afterthought. [0] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world

DetroitThrow 6y ago

I wish engineering education paid dues to _engineering processes_ that cause situations like you listed above. I wonder what kind of process failure happened in Lebanon.

InitialLastName 6y ago
As far as I know, ABET still requires an Engineering Ethics course (that will certainly cover the canonical examples) for their accreditation. That's a good start (it's certainly where I got my start in thinking about those issues).

ghastmaster 6y ago

The same logic holds true for gun safety. A person usually has to make two mistakes in order to have a negligent discharge. For example if you fail to engage the safety and then pull the trigger accidentally, you made two mistakes.

InitialLastName 6y ago
Yeah, that's a pretty canonical example, since the safety is the bit of the system designed to keep the other bits from doing accidental damage.

boilerupnc 6y ago

Not just limited to engineering, you also just described one hypothesis for the manifestation of biological cancers through systems biology. "Most solid tumors arise from a spectrum of genetic, epigenetic, and chromosomal alterations. [...] molecular alterations can be classified by dysfunction in as many as six different regulatory systems that must be perturbed for a normal cell to become cancerous [...] The mere recognition of cancer as a systems biology disease is a key first step. This hypothesis views the individual defects observable in solid tumors cumulatively as system failures either at the cellular or multicellular level." [0] [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2666950/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2666950/ [1] http://news.mit.edu/2017/cells-combat-chromosome-imbalance-0619 http://news.mit.edu/2017/cells-combat-chromosome-imbalance-0...

phonon 6y ago

Yeah...watch NTSB Board meetings...it's a recurring theme. https://www.youtube.com/user/NTSBgov/videos https://www.youtube.com/user/NTSBgov/videos