Bruno Latour, Aramis, or the Love of Technology, PDF - Dss-edit.com

so, every year we still find mistakes . So you can imagine, in softvvare that hasthousands of instructions and that is cobbled together as fast as possible byconsultants . . !" [no. 14JM. Cohen, at Motra headquarters in Besanc;:on"There was no hope for Aramis if you had to bring in the principles ofintrinsic security. Not a chance.""/ thought that was the basic philosophy in transportation. ""Not at all. An airplane doesn't have intrinsic security. Just imagine whatwould happen in an airplane if everything came to a halt whenever there wasa minor incident! Well, people take planes, they accept the risk; this isprobabilistic security. It was the same with Aramis."And let me tell you something: the RATP was ready to take the risk. Theywere much more open than people have said; they were ready to change theirphilosophy."I can write the equation for you [he takes out a piece of paper and writes}:Probabilistic security = Aramis is possible;Intrinsic security = Aramis is impossible."It's as simple as that. But I've finally concluded that in transportation, theonly philosophy that allows a decisionmaker to make a decision is intrinsicsecurity. Not for technological reasons. When you say 'intrinsic,' it means that,if there's an accident, people can say: 'Everyone involved did everythinghumanly possible to prov·lde a response for all the possible breakdowns theywere able to imagine.' This way the decisionmakers are covered. They can'tbe blamed for anything."In probability theory, you say simply: 'If event x happens, and if event ythen occurs, there is a risk of z in 1,000 of a fatal accident.' And this isaccepted, because the probability is slight. This approach is unacceptable fora decisionmaker in the field of public transportation."* [no. 45, p. 2JM. Chalvon, managing director of Alsthom at the time of the Aramis project:"Of course, I had my technical services study Aramis at the beginning. Youalways have to check whether your competitors aren't about to get ahead ofyou. I remember the technical report.*The small number of deaths per year that can be blamed on public transportationall make headlines. The 12,000 annual fatalities in France that can be blamedon automobiles a transportation system whose security is probabilistiC or eyenrandom!-don't make headlines. Hence the obsession with security characteristic ofgUided transportation systems.IS ARAMIS fEASIBlE2