Dear PHD-Design, IDForum land SAGE list subscribers,
Joining many others on the PHD-Design list and those of IDForum and
SAGE, I want to assure my American colleagues that I am with them these
dark times.
One of them, Ken Friedman, in his September 12 posting on the
PHD-Design list, reacted as a true designer by pointing to six security
problem areas of hardware and software in today's commercial aviation.
There are certainly many more that we can identify and publish on our
lists. I agree with Ken that we should refrain from rhetoric, useless
generalities and vague approaches.
I also submit that we rather contribute to identifying the problems and
perhaps offering ideas while leaving the (design) solutions to those
professionals whose services the aviation industry I hope will solicit.
The enormous disaster we witnessed may have opened our eyes for a
dangerous aspect of modern design and technology, namely its belief in
the reliability of products and systems to the point where it disregards
the essentiality of human input and critical decision.
Finally I join Ken in his hope that the enormity of this latest
terrorist calamity will end the American aviation industry's tendency to
deal with security as a costly inconvenience; an avoidable threat to
profitability.
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Wim Gilles * Carleton University School of ID, Ottawa, Ont. Canada *
e-mail address: <[log in to unmask]>
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