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A review by ericwelch
Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies by Charles Perrow
5.0
8/14/2011 I keep recommending this book and with the BP disaster, it continues to be very, very timely. One of the points made by Perrow is that when complex technology "meets large corporate and government hierarchies, lack of accountability will lead inexorably to destructive failures of systems that might have operated safely." (From a review of [b:A Sea in Flames: The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout|9678872|A Sea in Flames The Deepwater Horizon Oil Blowout|Carl Safina|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fFGw05k1L._SL75_.jpg|14566774] by Gregg Easterbrook in the NY Times April 23, 2011.)
Note added 3/2/09: Perrow's discussion of the problems inherent in tightly coupled systems is certainly timely given the intricacies of the recent financial disaster. Certainly of a tightly coupled system that cause the entire system to collapse when only one component fails.
**
This is a totally mesmerizing book. Perrow explains how human reliance on technology and over-design will inevitably lead to failure precisely because of inherent safety design. Good companion book for those who enjoy Henry Petroski.
Some quotes: "Above all, I will argue, sensible living with risky systems means keeping the controversies alive, listening to the public, and recognizing the essentially political nature of risk assessment. Unfortunately, the issue is not risk, but power; the power to impose risks on the many for the benefit of the few (p. 306)," and further on, "Risks from risky technologies are not borne equally by the different social classes [and I would add, countries:]; risk assessments ignore the social class distribution of risk (p. 310)." and "The risks that made our country great were not industrial risks such as unsafe coal mines or chemical pollution, but social and political risks associated with democratic institutions, decentralized political structures, religious freedom and plurality, and universal suffrage (p. 311).
Note added 3/2/09: Perrow's discussion of the problems inherent in tightly coupled systems is certainly timely given the intricacies of the recent financial disaster. Certainly of a tightly coupled system that cause the entire system to collapse when only one component fails.
**
This is a totally mesmerizing book. Perrow explains how human reliance on technology and over-design will inevitably lead to failure precisely because of inherent safety design. Good companion book for those who enjoy Henry Petroski.
Some quotes: "Above all, I will argue, sensible living with risky systems means keeping the controversies alive, listening to the public, and recognizing the essentially political nature of risk assessment. Unfortunately, the issue is not risk, but power; the power to impose risks on the many for the benefit of the few (p. 306)," and further on, "Risks from risky technologies are not borne equally by the different social classes [and I would add, countries:]; risk assessments ignore the social class distribution of risk (p. 310)." and "The risks that made our country great were not industrial risks such as unsafe coal mines or chemical pollution, but social and political risks associated with democratic institutions, decentralized political structures, religious freedom and plurality, and universal suffrage (p. 311).