[ExI] Why space tech isn't cutting edge

[Anders Sandberg]

> >...What troubles me, is why is medical technology even worse?  For 
> example, I have an insulin pump (artificial pancreas) because I'm a 
> type 1 diabetic...  So, their basically happy to let me make mistakes 
> and destroy my life, as long as they aren't providing anything that 
> would expose them to any risk... Brent Allsop
>
Medical technology as a field has rarely cared about patient desires, 
since patients are not their customers - health care professionals and 
instutitons are. And their mis-handling of security of implants show 
that they are pretty unaware of modern software and security thinking: 
they have not needed to keep up, since most of the functionality is 
pretty simple (it is the delivery that is nontrivial).


On 19/11/2012 19:24, spike wrote:
>
> Our liability system is holding us back in so many ways Brent, not 
> only in your specific case.  If cars were just being invented today 
> rather than in the late 1800s, they would be functionally illegal.
>

It goes both ways. Bruce Schneier has argued that if we held software 
makers liable for what their software did, we would have far more secure 
and safe software. Yes, we would likely have missed out on innovation, 
but we would not be in the house-of-cards mess we are in right now.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University

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