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Inside Technology
Rational Accidents
:
Reckoning with Catastrophic Technologies
By
John Downer
John Downer
John Downer is Associate Professor in Science and Technology Studies at the University of Bristol.
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The MIT Press
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/8844.001.0001
ISBN electronic:
9780262377010
Publication date:
2024
Contents
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Purpose, Scope, and Structure
I: The Aviation Paradox
1. Catastrophic Technologies: The Rise of Reliability as a Variable of Consequence
2. Finitism and Failure: On the Logical Implausibility of Ultrahigh Reliability
3. The Aviation Paradox: On the Impossible Reliability of Jetliners
II: Confronting Ultrahigh Reliability
4. Organizing Aviation Safety: Reliability Requirements and Logics
5. When the Chick Hits the Fan: Testing and the Problem of Relevance
6. The Sum of All Parts: Modeling Reliability With Redundancy
7. Rational Accidents: On Finitism’s Catastrophic Implications
III: Mastering Ultrahigh Reliability
8. Paradox Resolved: Transcending the Limits of Tests and Models
9. Design Stability Revisited: Context, Caveats, Composites, and Concorde
10. Safety Costs: the Structural Foundations of Ultrareliable Design
11. Incentives in Action: On Deficient 737s and Neglected Survivability
IV: Reckoning With Catastrophic Technologies
12. Burdens of Proof: The Hidden Costs of Positivism
13. The Myth of Mastery: On the Underappreciated Limits of Technological Ambition
14. Fukushima Revisited: Reaping the Whirlwinds of Certainty
References
Index
Series List
Pagebreaks of the print version
Cover Page
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