Inviting Disaster

by Chiles, James R.

• ISBN13: 9780066620817
• ISBN10: 0066620813
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-02
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

Provides a riveting investigation into the causes and often brutal consequences of technological breakdowns, James R. Chiles offers stunning new insights into the increasingly frequent machine disasters that haunt our lives.

Author Biography

James R. Chiles began writing about technology and history while a student at the University of Texas Law School. His first piece was a 1979 Texas Monthly article on the Pantex nuclear weapons assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas. He began writing features for Smithsonian in 1983, and since that time has published features and cover stories there and in Audubon, Air and Space, Harvard magazine, and American Heritage of Invention and Technology. He lives in Minnesota

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction	1	(16)
On the Machine Frontier: New Technology and Old Habits
Shock Wave	17	(20)
High Tech on the High Seas
Blind Spot	37	(28)
Baffled and Bewildered Inside the Massive System
Rush to Judgment	65	(30)
When Flagship Projects Run Out of Time
Doubtless	95	(22)
Testing is Such a Brother
The Really Bad Day	117	(22)
Panic and Triumph on the Machine Frontier
Tunnel Vision	139	(22)
Go Away, I'm Busy
Red Line Running	161	(20)
Humans Have a Limit, Too
A Crack in the System	181	(24)
Failure Starts Slow, But It Grows
The Healthy Fear	205	(24)
Alive and Alert at Danger's Edge
That Human Touch	229	(30)
How Little Errors Make Big Accidents
Robbing the Pillar	259	(16)
Slacking Off with the High-Power System
Machine Man	275	(20)
Surviving and Thriving on the New Frontier
Disasters, Calamities, and Near Misses Cited in the Book	295	(18)
List of Key Sources	313	(18)
Index	331