Les Chambers

At this point in history no one can prove that, pre-deployment, a given body of software will be reliable and, more importantly, safe in all operational situations. The next time you board an aircraft no one can guarantee 100% that you’ll make it to your destination. Probability is always involved. In 2018-19 three hundred and forty-six passengers on two Boeing 737 Max flights didn’t.
You might be wondering why aircraft and automobile manufacturers are allowed to use software to perform life critical functions in their products. For example, Airbus fly-by-wire systems and the currently much hyped self-driving cars. Continue reading…

We have to get off this planet. The last terrestrial extinction event occurred only 66 million years ago with an asteroid strike on the Yucatan Peninsula. It wiped out three-quarters of the plant and animal species on planet Earth. Only the naive believe this will never happen again.
Elon Musk has the right idea. His strategy for space migration to the planet Mars will make humanity a dual planetary species improving the odds on our survival for a while to come.
This is commendable risk management in action. It’s necessary but not sufficient. It ignores the reality that Andromeda (our nearest galaxy) is headed our way. Within 4.5 billion years it will collide with the Milky Way (our home galaxy). Don’t worry, no one will be around for the experience. Within 3.75 billion years the surface of the Earth will have already become far too hot for liquid water to exist, ending all terrestrial life.
Ergo, forget about exiting planet earth, we need to vacate the galaxy.
Don’t laugh. We need to develop a sense of urgency about this because engineering the systems required for intergalactic travel will take that long. Let’s start thinking about vehicles that can house autonomous human communities for multiple generations in intergalactic space.
It’s an interesting thought experiment. The problems are scientific, engineering and human. A while back I visited my daughter Julianne in Barcelona. My trip set me to systems thinking. Continue reading…

Two naked babies amble across a busy freeway. Trotting after them is a guy in a suit. The guy is me. Looking back on that day it’s clear that this was an omen, for within the hour I was to encounter extreme review and understand why, that for systems engineers, public nakedness is sometimes a good thing. Continue reading…

The uptake of web enabled learning technologies is far too slow in educational institutions. This will inevitably mean extinction for some. If our universities are the dinosaurs then the coming meteor is the “category killer course”. The university course that is so good, so cheap, so universally available, so universally respected and so universally job procuring that it wipes out its traditional competitors. On the brighter side fantastic careers abound for talented educators who embrace a career in teaching with the new media. Continue reading…

If you comply with a quality standard does this mean you’ve made a quality product? If you comply with a safety standard is your system is safe? Probably not. To produce quality you’ve got to know what people want and that can take a lifetime of experience. To guarantee safety you must have seen a lot of failures and that’s another lifetime of blowing stuff up. Standards are forms not formulas if you want quality and safety you’ll have to add some creativity and experience to the mix. Continue reading…