Inviting Disaster: Lessons From the Edge of Technology
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Inviting Disaster, by technology and history writer James R Chiles, is an unusual book: it appeals to the prurient desires that keep us riveted to highway accidents, while knowledgeably discoursing on the often preventable mistakes that caused them. At its heart are the colourful stories behind more than 50 of the most infamous catastrophes that periodically chilled the advance of the industrial age, both those well remembered (the 1986 Challenger explosion, for example) and those now largely forgotten (a 1937 gas explosion at a Texas school that killed 298). But along with lively depictions of these deadly devastations and white-knuckle calamities--the Maine battleship, Apollo 13 and Three Mile Island among them--Chiles offers an informed analysis of the unfortunate chain of events that brought them about. And by grouping like incidents to show how fatal "system fractures" eventually developed through a combination of human error and mechanical malfunction, he also suggests how we might sidestep such tragedies in the future. In so doing he fashions these spectacular accounts of failed planes, trains, ships, bridges, dam s, factories and other conveyances and facilities, into a cautionary tale about the progress we are making to "learn the way of the machine (and) act before an otherwise routine day rises to disaster". --Howard Rothman
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Full of scary news, but unsensational and thoroughly documented. Just don't read it in flight."--Kirkus Reviews
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Beginning on September 11,2001, and for the following three months, it seemed terrorists were about to turn the full might of our own mechanical wonders against us. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Beginning on September 11,2001, and for the following three months, it seemed terrorists were about to turn the full might of our own mechanical wonders against us. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I really love this book. I have read it more than once, and still can't put it down easily if I thumb through. Lots of stories, with good depth. A varied mix too, maritime featuring more than in many other compilations. I found the Thetis submarine story especially fascinating. Many incidents were relatively unfamiliar to me, (I'm a bit of a disaster book geek). These are all incidents to learn from - man-made or mismanaged - and the stories are well crafted. Very worthwhile.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
45 reviews
58 of 58 people found the following review helpful
Excellent General Introduction to Systems Safety
6 Sep 2003
Format:Hardcover
'Inviting Disaster' is a compelling and easy to read book. It is an introduction to accident theory for generalists, and is as interesting (perhaps more so) to nontechnical people as it is to engineers and the like. James Chiles discusses several major accidents (Challenger, Three Mile Island, Ocean Ranger, etc.) in well executed chapters with substantial background from previous precursor accidents or incidents. One reviewer seems to believe that this is a flaw, but I disagree. The reviewer seems to believe, for instance, that the R101 (a dirigible, not a blimp, as the reviewer wrongly states) is totally irrelevant to Challenger. In fact R101 was the Challenger of it's day, and the social, managerial and technological pressures that ultimately led to the R101 disaster ultimately led to Challenger as well. Chiles ties this theme together in a seamless manner in chapter after chapter.
This book is not a rigorous technical analysis of the individual disasters with the engineering and math associated with formal inquiries and technical (AAIB, NTSB, etc.) investigations. What it does better than any of the technical inquiries could ever do, though, is make a clear a compelling case for the problems that led to each of the accidents covered, treating man-machine interface issues with particular grace.
I have long been associated with the more technical aspects of accident investigation and safety systems, but have to say that while there are more technical accounts available for all of these accidents, if you are looking for an entry level (but complete) overview of accidents and systems safety, you can't go wrong with this book.
33 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Required reading for the entire planet
28 Sep 2001
Format:Hardcover
James Chiles' new book is a welcome addition to the pantheon of engineering disaster chronicles. You should already have read Perrow's Normal Accidents, Vaughn's The Challenger Launch Decision, and Sagan's Limits of Safety. If you haven't, go read them now, I'll wait. Ok, next you have to read Chiles' book.
Inviting Disaster covers some of the same incidents that are featured prominently in those others, and Chiles adds new insights and observations with his trenchant observations and outstanding writing. But where he really shines is his ability to spot near-misses, close calls that the public never knew about (but which still cause nightmares for those who wish they didn't.) There are many more near-misses than calamities, and access to some of them is a major addition to our overall engineering knowledge. This book's a great read.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Inviting Disaster-The Hope of Mind Over Machine.
22 Oct 2001
Format:Hardcover
I have read many books and articles about the problems of technology that range from gee-whiz-techno-chearleader to back-to-the stone-age Luddite. Recently, I have become so familiar with the problems of urban sprawl or nuclear waste that I simply turn to the last thin chapter for the author's solution to the problem and the solution is always vague...such as "grassroots activism" or "better regulation and oversight". It's very rare to find an author that is willing to touch practical solutions to technological problems with a ten foot pole...it's more fun to scare people about disasters past, present, and future...it sells books!
James Chiles doesn't want to just feed our goulish interest in things that blow-up and crash, he's interested in disecting each disaster for a cause or in many cases the set of sequences that lead to a catastrophic failure and prescribing steps to prevent future disasters. He presents the reader with case after case of preventable disasters and finds common threads of causative factors.
Chiles believes that we are living on an expanding "frontier" of technology. He believes that in order to survive in this always new environment we need to be ever vigilant. Chiles has assigned the name "Homo Machina" to the Human beings who will be best adapted to existence on the technology frontier.
This book would be most usefull to engineers, but it is written for a general audience that would be interested in behind-the-scenes explanations for many historical and recent headline-grabbers.
I find this book refreshing in it's candor about the course of Technology. I agree with Chiles' methods and conclusions but as a sceptic, I wish he would take on environmental disasters that call into question whether technology is a short-term boon and a long-term curse such as the burning of fossil fuels and global climate change , the use of CFC's and Ozone Depletion , and the dangers of emerging technologies like genetic engineering ...perhaps Chile's will take on these future disasters in his next book.
James Chiles doesn't want to just feed our goulish interest in things that blow-up and crash, he's interested in disecting each disaster for a cause or in many cases the set of sequences that lead to a catastrophic failure and prescribing steps to prevent future disasters. He presents the reader with case after case of preventable disasters and finds common threads of causative factors.
Chiles believes that we are living on an expanding "frontier" of technology. He believes that in order to survive in this always new environment we need to be ever vigilant. Chiles has assigned the name "Homo Machina" to the Human beings who will be best adapted to existence on the technology frontier.
This book would be most usefull to engineers, but it is written for a general audience that would be interested in behind-the-scenes explanations for many historical and recent headline-grabbers.
I find this book refreshing in it's candor about the course of Technology. I agree with Chiles' methods and conclusions but as a sceptic, I wish he would take on environmental disasters that call into question whether technology is a short-term boon and a long-term curse such as the burning of fossil fuels and global climate change , the use of CFC's and Ozone Depletion , and the dangers of emerging technologies like genetic engineering ...perhaps Chile's will take on these future disasters in his next book.
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