You have probably heard the (apocryphal?) story from World-War 1. The order: 'send reinforcements we are going to advance' was passed along the trenches, whispered from soldier to soldier. When the message arrived, it had changed to 'send three and fourpence, we are going to a dance'.
What caused the problem? Soldiers hoping to prevent the advance by altering the message? Fatigue? Mishearing the message they had heard for the one they wish they had heard?
The story is a classic, used to illustrate the importance of ensuring the integrity of information.
What caused the problem? Soldiers hoping to prevent the advance by altering the message? Fatigue? Mishearing the message they had heard for the one they wish they had heard?
The story is a classic, used to illustrate the importance of ensuring the integrity of information.
In our time, we have sophisticated communications systems. Surely, we can ensure the integrity of information as it passes along the chain?
The answer is 'mostly yes' or 'no'.
In A Bug and a Crash, James Gleick explains the destruction of the Ariane5 rocket on 4th June 1996. The guidance system tried to convert data from 64-bit format to 16-bit format and triggered a chain of events ultimately leading to the US$7 billion catastrophe. You can view the result on the right.
Gleick observed: 'Software built up over years from millions of lines of code, branching and unfolding and intertwining, comes to behave more like an organism than a machine.'
Gleick observed: 'Software built up over years from millions of lines of code, branching and unfolding and intertwining, comes to behave more like an organism than a machine.'
The errant soldier lives on in our machines.
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