Catastrophic System Failure: All for the Loss of a Horseshoe Nail

Open to the Public

STPP/ISP Seminar, "Catastrophic Systems Failure" with Robert Frosch, Tuesday, April, 2003.

Date: Tue, Apr 8, 2003 Time: 09:00am - 11:00am Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369

About

Abstract:

A system becomes quite complex,
And its failures do nothing but vex,
            Though a sand pile is simple,
            Trouble starts with a pimple,
So how can we defuse the hex?

If we connect some dots:
            Horseshoe-Nails….Sandpiles….Earthquakes….Zipf's-Law….
            Complexity….Fractality….Human-Error….Organizations….
            Non-Communication….Columbia….Catastrophe!,
we can get some clues, and build more robust systems.

To see a list of relevant publications recommended by Bob Frosch, click here.