To Forgive Design: Understanding Failure - Rilegato

Petroski, Henry

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0674065840 ISBN 13: 9780674065840

Casa editrice: Belknap Pr, 2012

Riassunto

When planes crash, bridges collapse, and automobile gas tanks explode, we are quick to blame poor design. But Henry Petroski says we must look beyond design for causes and corrections. Known for his masterly explanations of engineering successes and failures, Petroski here takes his analysis a step further, to consider the larger context in which accidents occur.

In To Forgive Design he surveys some of the most infamous failures of our time, from the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse and the toppling of a massive Shanghai apartment building in 2009 to Boston's prolonged Big Dig and the 2010 Gulf oil spill. These avoidable disasters reveal the interdependency of people and machines within systems whose complex behavior was undreamt of by their designers, until it was too late. Petroski shows that even the simplest technology is embedded in cultural and socioeconomic constraints, complications, and contradictions.

Failure to imagine the possibility of failure is the most profound mistake engineers can make. Software developers realized this early on and looked outside their young field, to structural engineering, as they sought a historical perspective to help them identify their own potential mistakes. By explaining the interconnectedness of technology and culture and the dangers that can emerge from complexity, Petroski demonstrates that we would all do well to follow their lead.

Su questo libro

Recensione

"When a plane crashes or a bridge collapses, faulty engineering is the usual suspect. But in seeking the roots of failure, we should look beyond design, says engineer Henry Petroski. We must probe the political and economic imperatives that shape purposes and use. In this follow-up to his influential To Engineer is Human, Petroski argues that accidents such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill are the result of faults as much in "human machinery" as in mechanical devices. He praises software developers for learning from structural engineering about how to report and analyze mishaps." --Nature, March 2012

"Mustering a truly staggering array of examples of past engineering failures, Petroski makes the case that failure is a necessary component of technological development." --Literary Review, November 2012

L'autore

Henry Petroski's previous books include To Engineer Is Human, which was developed into a BBC television documentary; The Pencil; The Evolution of Useful Things; and Engineers of Dreams. Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University.

Dettagli dell?edizione

• Editore: Belknap Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0674065840
• ISBN 13: 9780674065840
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Lingua: Inglese
• Numero di pagine: 410