What's amusing is that I don't think anyone trusts complex systems less than software developers.

You'll never find a developer on casino slot machines.

Because of knowledge of probability or software quality? Casino software has a lot of review and regulation because the customers have money at stake.

I'd stop it at "because of knowledge"

You should have stopped it earlier. There is such a thing as advantage slots, and many software developers are drawn to advantage play. Because of knowledge.

News to me. Developers are universally considered fish.

Okay, but is there something particularly wise about getting an alert that a boarding pass has already been used and presuming it must be a glitch? I would only call that wise if the operator in fact had knowledge about how the system works and could explain why that alert was likely to be a glitch.

> Okay, but is there something particularly wise about getting an alert that a boarding pass has already been used and presuming it must be a glitch?

Did the gate agent do any follow up verification? Like checking the flagged passenger's ID?

In retrospect, modern computer systems are inscrutable and unreliable enough (as a category) that it's rational to disregard them, especially if you've done some independent verification. Rational doesn't always mean correct in a specific case.

The ID checking the second time probably would have worked since that was presumably the real person. They don’t normally collect ID at boarding according to the article so they wouldn’t be able to see the previous person’s ID.

Exactly. I don't see how strictly trusting the computer would have lead to a better outcome:

1. Computer says no, leading to the true passenger being rejected. Probably would have resulted in the guy managing to steal her seat and maybe not getting caught.

2. Computer says no, overreact, and reconcile everything until the computer is satisfied (e.g. deplane everyone and start over, maybe checking IDs). I'd guess this attitude would result in hundreds or thousands of delayed flights when everything was fine.

Sure, but it says he made sure to board before the correct passenger… it didn’t alarm for him because he was the first. When the second passenger came through, they would ask them for ID and it would be correct because it was actually them.

It's a great book and very terrifying!