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…

Morality is a muscle. In some it never gets a chance to develop – atrophied from birth by spineless role models. In others it develops through childhood and the idealistic days of youth, but withers in the face of the so-called pragmatics of life, leaving us unable to exert any moral force at all when the situation desperately calls for it (refer, Deus Ex Machina and Speaking Truth to Power). We allow immoral things to happen and, in so doing, contribute to evil. We allow the present moment, that instant in time when we can choose to act, to be corrupted by our memory of what has been and our desire for what might be. We allow fear of consequence to cloud our morality. 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…

The current fashion of eliciting software requirements by collecting user stories is pathetically superficial. The educated use of stories has a much deeper purpose in systems engineering, and that is to reveal the fundamental principles that drive successful systems development. The story patterns of myth and legend hold eternal wisdom known since the fall of man into the field of time. Projecting these patterns onto technology projects leads to more insightful decision making in every aspect of complex systems development. Continue reading…