Re: Yet another uncomfortable truth
The real root cause is lack of accountability. If a bridge or building collapses, the engineers / architects / builders involved in the faulty design / construction / certification etc are legally, and in some cases, criminally liable. Same with doctors / patients etc etc.
Class software in (eg) 3 classes; life critical (failure causes loss of life or severe risk thereof) , economically critical (failure causes monetary damage above a certain threshold) , and not critical (failure 'merely' causes a bunch of pissed-off users). Apply criminal liability for failures of first class and civil lia for those of second class. This type of software will rapidly improve.
The flip side of course, is that the world has become addicted to software that is incredibly cheap for all the immense convenience, without properly realising it. So critical software would become a lot more expensive, and slower to roll out
Biting the hand that feeds IT
