#therac-25

[actual-corpse]

Therac-25: *exists. Injures many*

Engineers of the past: aw damn. Better not put to much faith in software. It might override its safeguards and kill people! Thanks for the lesson Therac-25!!

Self aggrandizing software bitches: Self driving cars! Remove human error! No mechanical input!

Therac-25: wait. Have you learned NOTHING FROM ME?!

Self driving car enthusiast: We give the robot moral tests to make it choose between killing a baby and a grandma!

Any person with a lick of sense: Just.... Just drive off the road if you can... Bro!

Car bitch: THE CAR STAYS ON THE ROAD! THINK OF THE TROLLEY PROBLEM

Engineers: WE SOLVED THAT!

Another insulting name that I'm using in place of people like Elon Musk: YAY TECHNOLOGY! HUMANS ARE WEAK AND OBSOLETE I AM GOD!

[naomiknight-17]

At the Ultrasound/x-ray clinic like

Don't think about the Therac-25 Don't think about the Therac-25 Don't think about the Therac-25

[theracs25]

[90frogsinatrenchcoat]

*goes on a rampage about the therac-25 and how fucked it was that no one was paying attention to that shit*

[bringmefoxgloves]

saw x possible spoilers

Thank you Star ( @starlightsailfish​ ) for getting the screencap, and all the Sawtuals for listening to my infodump on radiation incidents in Mexico! 

But this particular trap? The one for the woman who faked being cured? She’s being exposed to a radiation therapy unit. 

You can just see the arm of it, down below, turned upside down. Right side up, an older model could look like this:

I believe the glow of the orange is from radioactive decay. Exposure to unshielded radiation, which as most people already know, creates terrible burns from weaker short exposure, and unrecoverable sickness and burns that lead to death from powerful exposure. Either way, she’s in for a rough time.

Based on the real life history of radiation therapy units becoming incidents of widespread contamination (The Ciudad Juárez cobalt-60 incident and the 1962 Mexico City radiation accident come to mind) from being not so closely guarded or maintained, (in Mexico itself, no less!) I think it is absolutely possible for John Kramer to get his hands on a unit, if not from the practice that deceived him, for curing his cancer. Which these units are used to treat. 

[mizuthe-cat]

new documentary

radiation related malpractices this time

[leafmutual]

New fear unlocked

[clarabaguette]

Therac 25 pilled

[osakanone]

Therac-25 is one of those things where, if it were in a novel, people would call it unrealistic. It’s horrifying in the extreme.

So the article is neat, but read the comments:

Yeah.

[theearthmagicguy]

Yeah, I found a job offer from Indeed for some fuckin executive level position.

Also a work from home radiology... can't remember the specifics, but I remember being spooked about the concept of a remote operated THERAC.

why is it that i put in "entry-level" on linkedin and they show me jobs that require degrees and previous experience in the field. i am being trolled by a cruel algorithm

[machine-saint]

"a computer cannot be held accountable, therefore a computer must not make a management decision"

this always seemed like a weird statement to me, more based on being snappy than any logic. the people who programmed the computer can be "accountable". the people who designed the system that the computer integrates it with can be accountable. does the tragedy of therac-25 means that we should never use computers in a medical context, since we couldn't put the therac-25 on trial?

if your concern is that the computer acts as an impenetrable "blame absorber", then consider that people have been doing this with "i'm just following the rules" for centuries, and people rarely suggests that this means we should abolish structure. consider all the times that a systemic flaw has been excused as "we found the single person responsible for all these problems and got rid of them", or the fact that in industrial accident analysis care has to be taken to avoid just letting all the blame attach itself to whatever human was most proximal.

[postoctobrist]

Similar to the caving episode, have you ever considered doing more WTYP episodes about software-related disasters? Stuff like THERAC-25, or that screw up with the Royal Mail system?

Therac has been in the planning stages for a while

[recruitersdni]

It's them. Autism and ADHD.

[this-doesnt-endd]

Save me hot tea and youtube essays about therac 25 save me

[naomiknight-17]

If I have something akin to a special interest I think it must be radiation sickness and the incidents/accidents/disasters that cause it

The Goiana Incident. The Radium Girls. Three Mile Island. Chernobyl. The Demon Core. The SL-1. The Therac-25. I could go on

I don't know what it is but reading and watching everything I possibly can on the science behind, the causes of, and end results of radiation-related incidents is absolutely fascinating to me

I hate blood and gore and injury but if an article or video shows what radiation does to someone's skin or bone marrow? I am studying that shit

What is wrong with my brain

[samoverhere]

Me when the higher dose of beta radiation then at chernobyl