In the latest edition of John Brockman's EDGE newsletter, conversation
about the blackout of August 14th. From Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, author of LINKED: THE NEW SCIENCE OF
NETWORKS, (actually, it's a reprinted op-ed from the
8/16 NY Times, thanks Mark R.!):
Once power is fully restored, it will take little time to find the
culprit: most likely, it will be a malfunctioning switch or fuse, a
snapped power line or some other local failure. Somebody will be
fired, promotions and raises denied, and lawmakers will draw up
legislation guaranteeing that this problem will not occur again.Something will be inevitably missed, however, during all this
finger-pointing: this week's blackout has little to do with faulty
equipment, negligence or bad design. President Bush's call to upgrade
the power grid will do little to eliminate power failures. The
magnitude of the blackout is rooted in an often ignored aspect of our
globalized world: vulnerability due to interconnectivity.
