2026-05-22
Yes, it's our old friend Martin Geddes, up to his analytical research again, and not shying away from the inconvenient implications.
As an ex-IT man myself and being used to designing interfaces which 'failed safely" rather than "failed stupidly", designing for failure became second-nature to me. Nobody wants data files lost, but in extremis loss is impossible to prevent, whilst with sensible design it (usually!) remains possible to at least flag with an error message so that expert corrective action can be summoned.
Martin is simply noting that such measures may be required within the complex systems of information management that support civilisation in general, rather than systems that live entirely within the domains of technology.
The problem of course is that civilisation such as we enjoy has been built with ad hoc correction and error detection and management mechanisms, rather than being designed according to a coherent theoretical framework.
I await his treatise on how to apply these principles to the infinitely messy world of politics with interest. I don't doubt that since politics is the art of communicating specific messaging in order to secure specific outcomes, similar or the same principles may apply, but something tells me that ... well, it may not be quite that simple ... especially when the messaging often seems to be founded on deceptions of some kind.
