Overview

An unflinching look at the unique challenges posed by complex technologies we cannot afford to let fail-and why the remarkable achievements of civil aviation can help us understand those challenges. An unflinching look at the unique challenges posed by complex technologies we cannot afford to let fail-and why the remarkable achievements of civil aviation can help us understand those challenges. Nuclear reactors, deep-sea drilling platforms, deterrence infrastructures-these are all complex and formidable technologies with the potential to fail catastrophically. In Rational Accidents, John Downer outlines a new perspective on technological failure, arguing that undetectable errors can lurk in even the most rigorous and ""rational"" assessments of these systems due to the inherent limits of engineering tests and models. Downer finds that it should be impossible, from an epistemological viewpoint, to achieve the near-perfect reliability that we require of our most safety-critical technologies. There is, however, one such technology that demonstrably appears to achieve these ""impossible"" reliabilities- jetliners. Downer looks closely at civil aviation and how it has reckoned with the problem of failure. He finds that the way we conceive of jetliner reliability hides the real practices by which it is achieved. And he shows us why those practices are much less transferrable across technological domains than we are led to believe. Fully understanding why jetliners don't crash, he concludes, should lead us to doubt the safety of other ""ultra-reliable"" technologies. A unique and sobering exploration of technological reliability from an STS perspective, Rational Accidents is essential reading for understanding why our most safety-critical technologies are even more dangerous than we believe.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Downer
Publisher:   MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:   MIT Press
Weight:   0.369kg
ISBN:  

9780262546997

ISBN 10:   026254699
Pages:   328
Publication Date:   16 January 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION: PURPOSE, SCOPE, AND STRUCTURE xv I THE AVIATION PARADOX I I CATASTROPHIC TECHNOLOGIES: THE RISE OF RELIABILITY AS A VARIABLE OF CONSEQUENCE 3 2 FINITISM AND FAILURE: ON THE LOGICAL IMPLAUSIBILITY OF ULTRAHIGH RELIABILITY 17 3 THE AVIATION PARADOX: ON THE IMPOSSIBLE RELIABILITY OF JETLINERS 29 II CONFRONTING ULTRAHIGH RELIABILITY 39 4 ORGANIZING AVIATION SAFETY: RELIABILITY REQUIREMENTS AND LOGICS 41 5 WHEN THE CHICK HITS THE FAN: TESTING AND THE PROBLEM OF RELEVANCE 53 6 THE SUM OF ALL PARTS: MODELING RELIABILITY WITH REDUNDANCY 71 7 RATIONAL ACCIDENTS: ON FINITISM’S CATASTROPHIC IMPLICATIONS 89 III MASTERING ULTRAHIGH RELIABILITY 109 8 PARADOX RESOLVED: TRANSCENDING THE LIMITS OF TESTS AND MODELS 111 9 DESIGN STABILITY REVISITED: CONTEXT, CAVEATS, COMPOSITES, AND CONCORDE 131 10 SAFETY COSTS: THE STRUCTURAL FOUNDATIONS OF ULTRARELIABLE DESIGN 151 11 INCENTIVES IN ACTION: ON DEFICIENT 737s AND NEGLECTED SURVIVABILITY 173 IV RECKONING WITH CATASTROPHIC TECHNOLOGIES 191 12 BURDENS OF PROOF: THE HIDDEN COSTS OF POSITIVISM 193 13 THE MYTH OF MASTERY: ON THE UNDERAPPRECIATED LIMITS OF TECHNOLOGICAL AMBITION 211 14 FUKUSHIMA REVISITED: REAPING THE WHIRLWINDS OF CERTAINTY 223 NOTES 235 REFERENCES 255 INDEX 293

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Producer and director John Downer has pioneered many of the spectacular techniques that are now commonplace in wildlife filmmaking. Both in his early work with the BBC Natural History Unit and as an independent producer, John has created award-winning programmes, including In-Flight Movie, Supersense and Polar Bear- Spy on the Ice.

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