Mastodawn

Matthew Aug 8, 2025

"open the pod bay doors, Hal"

"sure, the doors are now open"

"no, Hal, they aren't. open the doors"

"you are right, that is my mistake. i have now opened the doors"

"Hal, the doors are still not open. open the doors!"

"you are right, the doors are not open. i have now opened the doors"

"Hal! the doors are still not open! i'm dying out here!"

"i am sorry, i did not open the doors when i said i had. that was my mistake. the doors are now open"

"... Hal ... open ... the ..."

Tristan Colgate-McFarlane

@picard swap "open the pod bay doors", for "lower the x-ray target", and you have the THERAC-25 incident (though that had a higher body count)

Third spruce tree on the left Aug 8, 2025

@tmcfarlane @picard oo, there's a consequences of poor engineering responsibility reference from the past I've not heard of in a long time.

Tristan Colgate-McFarlane Aug 8, 2025

@tezoatlipoca @picard we covered it on one of my uni courses (far too many years ago). We need a lot more awareness of killer software TBH. Boeing have provided a least one case study in recent years.

Third spruce tree on the left Aug 8, 2025

@tmcfarlane @picard

Yeah same. It was an "Engineering Ethics/Responsibility" 101 level course. We learned about Therac-25, Arienne-5, the Tacoma Narrows bridge, the Kansas Hilton walkway collapse, the Challenger disaster (not just sw, more "part of your responsibility is not just good quality sw but to call out bullshit when you see it").
That course is still on the curriculum and if there isn't a whole day spent on the MAX... _criminal negligence_... I'd be surprised.