AI is forcing us to pay off 40 years of technical debt

Re:AI is forcing us to pay off 40 years of technical debt by WalterBright on Wednesday November 04, 2026 @12:40PM (#50368928)

Buildings and bridges have very large safety margins, to account for design errors, construction errors, damage, poor materials, etc.

Airplanes have much smaller safety margins, meaning a lot more calculation is done, and there's a high emphasis on double checking everything.

Spacecraft have tiny safety margins, which amps up the design rigor to 11.

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Re:AI is forcing us to pay off 40 years of technical debt by R0m41nJosh on Thursday November 05, 2026 @01:20AM (#50375837)

Airplanes and srarcrafts are operated by a trained trusted crew. Software is operated continuously by lots of hostile people and machines.

When terrorists take the control of a plane, it's a catastrophe.

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