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On a plane or missile I'd assume several computers, with the majority winning the decision
by iso1631 3y ago
On a plane or missile I'd assume several computers, with the majority winning the decision
- taylodl 3y agoOne of those computers just went out. Now how do you form your majority? Besides which, in such systems there's a governing system coordinating the election. What happens if your governing system goes out?
- Volundr 3y agoYour governing system isn't a single system, it's multiple using a suitable algorithm to establish quorum. This is a well studied problem in distributed systems.
- iso1631 3y agoSo one computer is out and the other 2 are giving different answers to the same question?
- dredmorbius 3y agoThe question is increased resilience not perfection. At some point, a military device / weapons system recognises that it's not operating to spec and either disables itself or diverts and destroys itself in a non-target region. Keep in mind that for most weapons, not activating when not specified is far more useful than failing to activate where and when specified. See the case of several "broken arrow" nuclear weapons incidents in which failsafes prevented unintended detonation. In once case with only a single fail-safe preventing that detonation which would have been in a civilian populated region of the United States.
- goodpoint 3y agoNo, there's plenty of single purpose systems.