Man/Machine; Man/Man, or Murphy's Law Revisited

The mistakes of humans, whether in design, construction or operation of modern technological systems, are likely to occur in the most unexpected circumstances. The author discusses examples of accidents or mishaps due to human errors in design, training and management as well as possible solutions. New opportunities for hazard have appeared in the form of human abuse of legal and illegal drugs as they may alter the predictability of human behavior. As the reliability of systems increases, human operators are faced with dull monitoring tasks and boredom, while the remote risk of failure can have catastrophic consequences.