Belgian_Draft 0 #51 November 11, 2008 QuoteQuoteQuoteI tend to be of the 'normal accidents' school of thought, but 'true believers' in HRT assert 100% safety is possible. I feel the same way. On paper it looks good, but in the real world 100% reliablity is impossible. Comparison of risk with what we accept when skydiving is instructive. That is an excellent example. Our rigs are very simple, constantly scrutinized by thousands of people for ways to make them better, yet there is still the very rare malfunction.HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 801 #52 November 11, 2008 I think we've all given the swabbies their respect...but what about the innocent civilians? It WAS mostly civilians that perished. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Belgian_Draft 0 #53 November 11, 2008 They are, of course, in our thoughts as well.HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AMax 0 #54 November 11, 2008 Quote Quote Quote Quote Or maybe it is just the nature of the business for accidents to happen once in a while regardless of the precautions taken. Whether you knew it or not ... yes, there is one school of thought that states asserts exactly that. For tightly coupled systems of sophisticated technologies, normal accidents theory states that accidents will happen. It was originally developed to explain the Three Mile Island disaster and has subsequently been applied to Space Shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters, commerical aviation disasters, the chemical industry, marine transport, and other high-risk, high-technology endeavors. The main alternative is high reliability theory. Yes, I have heard of that. Part of my job has always been to balance safety, reliability, and cost. The only way to make something 100% safe is to not make it at all. High reliability theory, like that employed by USN Nuclear submariners (which is the classic case), does maintain that with proper training, management, & safety culture 100% reliability can be achieved. I tend to be of the 'normal accidents' school of thought, but 'true believers' in HRT assert 100% safety is possible. VR/Marg I love your posts Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
normiss 801 #55 November 11, 2008 Here's the best write-up I've seen so far. Newsweek Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
