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    Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology
    Unavailable
    Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology
    Unavailable
    Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology
    Ebook486 pages7 hours

    Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology

    By James R. Chiles

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Combining captivating storytelling with eye-opening findings, Inviting Disaster delves inside some of history's worst catastrophes in order to show how increasingly "smart" systems leave us wide open to human tragedy.

    Weaving a dramatic narrative that explains how breakdowns in these systems result in such disasters as the chain reaction crash of the Air France Concorde to the meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, Chiles vividly demonstrates how the battle between man and machine may be escalating beyond manageable limits -- and why we all have a stake in its outcome.

    Included in this edition is a special introduction providing a behind-the-scenes look at the World Trade Center catastrophe. Combining firsthand accounts of employees' escapes with an in-depth look at the structural reasons behind the towers' collapse, Chiles addresses the question, Were the towers "two tall heroes" or structures with a fatal flaw?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 8, 2008
    ISBN9780061734588
    Unavailable
    Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology

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    Reviews for Inviting Disaster

    4/5

    37 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Interesting documentation of major disasters & near misses. Author goes into detail concerning little known incidents. Good read. Kind of long with the author skipping around a little too much from disaster to disaster and intertwining them. Sometimes a little confusing. Worth reading if you are into "this sort of thing regarding to technical engineering aspects of the disasters." The summary of events leading up to the incident in a 1, 2, 3, ... etc. format was helpful in understanding what exactly lead up to the incident.

      The review of the various scenarios leading up to of the Union Carbide Bhopal, India MIC catastrophe.
    • 4/5
      I read this as part of my undergrad work to get credits for ethical technology use (they wouldn't take my transfer credits without me reading this first). The voice is good (not too dry, not judgmental, etc) and the anecdotes are interesting.
    • 5/5
      An excellent book, combining new theories on how disasters happen with compelling details of illustrative disasters.