Re: Books on systems failures

["Tim Gwinn" <***>]

Regarding the book I mentioned below, ""Why Things Bite Back: Technology and
the Revenge of Unintended Consequences", I ended up  picking up a copy at
the local bookstore when I happened to see it there. I have been busy
recently and have had time to only skim it, but it looks to be quite
interesting. As the many reviews say on Amazon.com, it is mostly about "how"
things bite back, not "why". (I suppose one could say its mostly about
phenotypes, not genotypes.)

But it does seem thought-provoking, and I suspect many of the situations (in
technology, ecology, and other areas) are demonstrations of
impredicativities. Seems like a similar book to this one needs to be
written, but emphasizing the "whys".

Regards,
Tim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ROSEN Forum [mailto:*** Behalf Of Tim
> Gwinn
> Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 11:03 PM
> To: ***
> Subject: Books on systems failures
>
>
> To all,
>
> I was perusing new book releases on Amazon.com and ran across
> this one: "Why
> Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended
> Consequences" by
> Edward Tenner
> (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679747567/ ).
>
> >From the description it seemed to be an interesting look at how some
> attempts at improvement have had significant negative consequences. To me,
> it might be useful in presenting a broad spectrum of scenarios
> where complex
> solutions might offer better (and possibly the only) solutions to the
> scenarios, and therefore may be helpful in better understanding the nature
> of complexity.
>
> Has anyone read this book, or can recommend similar books?
>
> Regards,
> Tim