Fatal Defect, Chasing Killer Computer Bugs

More than ever, our society depends on the reliable - if not always correct - functioning of computers. Computers amplify not only our genius but our flaws, sometimes to intolerable extremes. Author Ivars Peterson traces the lurching history of software development and describes how misconceptions and mistakes have become an inextricable part of computer programs and systems. He creates fascinating and colorful profiles of the people who hunt down these elusive computer bugs and struggle to make an inherently fallible system less treacherous. He also offers dozens of detailed examples of how computer failures occur - some amusing, some annoying, others terrifying, even fatal.
Each computer failure is a reminder that we all pay a price for sloppy thinking in software development, for making the rush to market a more important consideration than safety and reliability. No software can ever be guaranteed 100 percent bug-free, but if we analyze our past mistakes and rethink our approach to computers, we can defuse some ticking time bombs and create a more trustworthy next generation of computers.

When the computer crashes, taking the plane, spacecraft, or phone system down with it, the postmortem falls to "bug hunters," software experts whom Science News reporter Peterson has followed through some of their investigations and analysis. But nonhackers needn't expect an overload of cyberspeak: Peterson explains in clear English how the engineers find and squash bugs. The methods vary with the age of the beast: "program archaeology" involves reconstructing what the original programmer was thinking of, whereas new programs, especially those written for aerospace purposes, utilize "program verifiers" that monitor the program's status. But aside from methods, software-caused disasters are the eye-catching anecdotes Peterson offers, ranging from a radiation machine that killed patients, to France's accident-prone Airbus plane, to Russia's embarrassing loss of two Mars probes, to a disaster-in-waiting--come the year 2000, warns one bug hunter, "algorithmic anarchy" might reign, for business software wasn't designed to switch dates from 1999 to 2000. However shortsighted that design decision was, it well illustrates Peterson's theme: software defects are inevitable. Gilbert Taylor