September 23, 2008
looking for ugly
Kevin Kelly has a great post that brought to mind the quick shutdown of the Hadron Collider. The observation that jumped out at me was:
How do you prevent major errors in a system built to successfully keep major errors to a minimum? You look for the ugly.
In these large systems — he gives aviation as another example — where the the propensity for error has been minimized to almost zero, looking for the ugly becomes a way to recognize failure before it happens.
Which reminds me of my system for deciding whether to read a book.
It also reminds me of a realization I had studying the Holocaust: a simple bad idea, a simple wrong idea, carried to its logical conclusion, results in catastrophe. The banality of evil lies in the effortless path. The unexamined life. Etc.
Of course we can draw obvious political conclusions. And we can and should find the spaces in our lives where the ugly lives. I guess the question is, based on the first sentence of your life, would you read the book?
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2 Responses to “looking for ugly”
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Gotta judge the cover first.
Yes, Deron, I would. But looking for the ugly is a difficult task. It generally means an assault on our personal aesthetics. That’s a messy business.