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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
When he was on the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Commission, the late Richard Feynman objected to the way in which NASA went about testing the limits of their technology by risking human lives. He said that you don't do it that way; you don't keep pushing the limits until you have a disaster and then back off. I don't remember the exact quote, sorry.
But he was wrong. We do do it that way. Early on, railway companies resisted the use of telegraph to keep track of trains, even after hundreds of lives were lost in collisions. The death of the Titanic, and most of its passengers, resulted in ocean liner safety measures, such as the tracking of icebergs. We got many airline safety measures because of tens of thousands of deaths. And of course, we got seatbelts, shoulder harnesses, air bags, and other safety features because of millions of deaths on the highway. The automobile manufacturers would never have provided any safety features if the deaths had not horrified the public.
We do do it that way. Maybe we shouldn't.