The Raginsky Critique is an interesting twist on the Preparedness Paradox. I agree that we are seldom aware of the regulatory power of feedback systems. And on top of this, though control theory sympathizers would like to prove otherwise, control theoretic tools are imperfect at identifying potential failure modes and inappropriate levels of operator apathy. It's hard! As much as I love John and his aspirations, I have grown to think that control theoretic feedback only gives actionable insights for a small subset of feedback systems.
Related to the Prepardeness Paradox, the Y2K bug was a fun example where people panicked about interconnectedness and probably overcorrected. https://www.argmin.net/p/in-the-year-2000
"This paper discusses the ways in which automation of industrial processes may expand rather than eliminate problems with the human operator."
"... the increased interest in human factors among engineers reflects the irony that the more advanced a control system is, so the more crucial may be the contribution of the human operator."
The Raginsky Critique is an interesting twist on the Preparedness Paradox. I agree that we are seldom aware of the regulatory power of feedback systems. And on top of this, though control theory sympathizers would like to prove otherwise, control theoretic tools are imperfect at identifying potential failure modes and inappropriate levels of operator apathy. It's hard! As much as I love John and his aspirations, I have grown to think that control theoretic feedback only gives actionable insights for a small subset of feedback systems.
Related to the Prepardeness Paradox, the Y2K bug was a fun example where people panicked about interconnectedness and probably overcorrected. https://www.argmin.net/p/in-the-year-2000
As far as operator apathy is concerned, Lisanne Bainbridge was writing about this very cogently in 1983 in "Ironies of automation" (https://www.adaptivecapacitylabs.com/IroniesOfAutomation-Bainbridge83.pdf), which should be required reading for control theory sympathizers!
"This paper discusses the ways in which automation of industrial processes may expand rather than eliminate problems with the human operator."
"... the increased interest in human factors among engineers reflects the irony that the more advanced a control system is, so the more crucial may be the contribution of the human operator."
Really nice article.