I keep harping on it, but civil or nuclear engineers have a world of practice we could draw on in software. We just don't.
> Buildings are too complicated!
> Fabrication problem in struts? Go after the strut manufacturers.
> Badly documented connection in column with resulting bracing failure and buckling? Go after the column connection manufacturers.
> Bad soil conditions led to improper concrete pile hardening? Go after the geotechnical engineers or concrete placers.
And so on. We have building codes with pre-set ways of doing things for a reason. You can go outside of them if you want to, but you take on way more cost. Not just bonding, but design, testing, etc. We also have, gasp, government inspectors. Say it ain't so! But every single domicile or place of work has had them give the thing a look over, but we can't even get them for a company as important as Equifax.
The Economist is right about one thing: Data is the new oil. We're the new oilmen. And if you want to understand how they slept at night sweeping global warming under the rug look no further than our own corporations that are resisting regulation at every turn.
Always on microphones in almost every home. Televisions that spy on us. Cameras everywhere with facial recognition. Companies that track our phones while we walk around. Hospitals that lose bulk patient records or keep Windows unpatched because "airgaps" then WannaCry hits. Children with anxiety and suicide rates that have sky rocketed. Babies parented by YouTube which for years lacked any oversight on content. Completely unregulated cyberarms market with American companies selling iPhone vulns to corrupt, illiberal states that torture journalists.
Hackable cars. Hackable powerplants. Hackable electrical grids. Hackable telephone towers. Hackable satellites. Hackable tanks. Hackable aircraft carriers.
This cannot stand.