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Safety and Aristotle

Most news groups seem to have the same cast of characters: there is the long-winded one (or more than one), the aggressive one, the flippant one, several intense people, the obsessive one, the know-it-all, and so on. The York University Safety Critical Mailing List (http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/hise/sc_list.php) has its share of these types, of course, but it also has a good number of thoughtful people who take a lot of time to try to come to a reasonable consensus on the topics under discussion.

What to the eavesdropping outsider is rather scary is that they cannot reach consensus on some pretty fundamental things. And they are talking about the safety of systems such as aircraft, trains, and nuclear power stations that are part of the everyday life of many people and where a safety failure will kill people.