Something something ruleishness something somethin...
# linking-together
i
Something something ruleishness something something legalism something something (Via @Kartik Agaram) https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/23/22399721/uk-post-office-software-bug-criminal-convictions-overturned
"Earlier this month the chief executive of the Post Office said that Horizon would be replaced with a new, cloud-based solution." Just sprinkle some cloud dust on it, problem solved.
e
Similar vibes
What this story tells us is that software has consequences. It's easy to look at a missile guidance system or High Frequency Trading and say "that's unethical!", but far more mundane software performing far more mundane tasks can also have dangerous or even lethal failure modes.
For example, banks are notoriously bad at updating names, and deadnames can resurface at inopportune moments that risk outing the user to housemates. Parental spyware will out a kid to their parents, risking homelessness or suicide.
As engineers we must keep the whole system in mind, including its users and their wider lives and situations. We must respond to our products' worst failure modes, no matter how unlikely we believe them to be. You cannot rollback a corpse.
c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecIWPzGEbFc

"Civlization depends on us, in ways it doesn't yet understand, in ways we don't yet understand"
I recently rewatched that talk in some parts. Very interesting. It made me realize that (the) software industry is not sustainable from a knowledge transfer perspective. ( Which I think extends eventually to all industry) . thinking about that made me feel uncomfortable.
Thinking about Bret Victors Dynamic land and other efforts to change the culture of the software industry towards something more communal and more sustainable made me feel better. Different movements are trying to change their subcultures hopefully that eventually leads to a sustainable society, eventually. WDYT @Ivan Reese ?