4 ms·
This has all been done before in mechanical, structural, and civil engineering. People die and then regulatory and industry standards fix the problems. We do n
by consumer451 2y ago
This has all been done before in mechanical, structural, and civil engineering. People die and then regulatory and industry standards fix the problems.
We do not need to re-invent the concepts of train engine, bridge, and dam standards again.
I mean, I guess we actually do. The issue is that software has not yet killed enough people for those lessons to be learned. We are now at that cliff's edge [0], [1].
Another problem might be that software influence is on a far more hockey-stick-ish growth curve than what we dealt with in mechanical, civil, and structural engineering.
Meanwhile, our tolerance for professional and governmental standards seems to be diminishing.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39918245 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39918245
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24513820 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24513820
... https://hn.algolia.com/?q=hospital+ransomware https://hn.algolia.com/?q=hospital+ransomware
- tsimionescu 2y agoNo, the world's infrastructure has never been rebuilt from scratch to higher standards, not in the last few thousand years. We have always built on what already exists, grandfathered in anything that seemed ok, or was important enough even if not ok, etc. We often live in buildings that far predate any building code, or even the state that emitted that code. We still use bits of infrastructure here and there that are much older than any modern state at all (though, to be fair, if a bridge has been around for the last thousand years, the risk it goes down tomorrow because it doesn't respect certain best practices is not exactly huge).