ON RELIABILITY AND UNRELIABILITY A DIALOGUE

Published in: Rainer Rilling, Hartwig Spitzer, Owen Greene, Ferdinand Hucho, Gyula Pati (eds.): Challenges. Science and Peace in a Rapidly Changing Environment. International Congress of Scientists and Engineers. Berlin, 29 Nov - Dec 1, 1991. Proceedidngs. Schriftenreihe Wissenschaft und Frieden. Nr. 16. August 1992. Vol. II. Marburg: BdWi (Bund demokratischer Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler) 1992, 177-179.

 

     

1. Computers are reliable.
A - Computers are instruments.
B - Are they?
A - They are good as far as they are reliable.
B - We rely on them...
A - night and day.

2. We are unreliable.
A - We are not just instruments.
B - We are not good because we are unreliable.
A - We canno rely on each other.
B - We can rely on computer software.

3. Computers are unreliable.

A - "Since 1982, no less thant 22 US servicemen have died in five separate crashes  of the USAF's sophisticated UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopter"  (T. Forester, P. Morrison: Computer Ethics, Oxford 1990, p. 68).
B - Computer reliability is a myth.

4. Logic is reliable.
A - Computer software is based on logic.
B - Can we test it?
A - Yes.

B - Well, some kind of things should not happen.
A - Everything that happens has a cause. We rely on logic.
B - But we have no possibility for proving that everything happens according to a plan. Also Laplace was a metaphysician.
A - What about making our actions reliable...
B - creating a faith in the reliability of computer software.
A - How can we do it?
B - We just negate unreliability. I mean, alternatives, surprises, accidents, disastrous outcomes...

5. On reliability and unreliability.
A - What does the relationship between reliability and unreliability look like?
B - It looks like us.
A - It looks like something we cannot tie down.
B - It is a 'non place'.
A - And it does not promise to take us some other place.
B - We have difficulties.
A - We are the difficulty.
B - We are not just like computers.
A - Computers are just reliable.
B - You mean...?
A - Well, they are reliable with regard to specific situations...
B - at least as far as...
A - But, how can we know how far?
B - Do they know?
A - Are there borders of reliability?
B - What is a border?
A - Is a fuzzy forder a border?

B - Well it is more like us.
A - Do we have borders? Is our DNA a border? or our body? or our ethical imperative? or is it the freedom of the other person?
B - What about geographical borders and time borders?
A - What about the borders we call instincts?
B - Are there borders of logic?
A - Computers have borders.
B - A software is a border.
A - What is inside it?
B - Orthodoxies and a paradox.
A - Orthodoxies: Everyhing is OK. We have tested the software. No problem. Nothing can go wrong.
B - The paradox: the more reliable a software seems to be, the less reliable it really is.
A - Why?
B - Just because it ignores unreliability
A - This is sthe software paradox.
B - We are part of this paradox.
A -Reliability is a question of borders...
B - as well as a question of what is beyong the borders.
A - It is a question of relationship.
B - What is a relationship?
A - It is a difficult concept.
B - Things happen.
A - Life happens.
B - Learning to live is an art...
A - if we try to let others live, I mean, if we try to learn what a relationship is.
B - A software is a border.
A - It is not a relationship but an intersection.
B - A relationship goes across a border.
A - We are a border.
B - We are also a relationship.
A - Computers have borders.
B - They are not a relationshsip.
A - Computer power relies on a border.
B - Human reason goes beyond.
A - At least if we do not see it just within the borders of logic.
B - Is human reason still human reason beyond this border?
A - What is human reason?
B - It is not just an intersection. It is a relationship.
A - What does the intersection look like?
B - It looks like logic.
A - We have difficulties inside this intersection...
B - because we are beyond it.
A - Let us think again on reliability and unreliability...
B - together.

Last update: April 22, 2017  

     

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