Including Morality and Mortality in Design

Design is the new buzzword in Software Development. It implies that our Software (and by implication, our world) can be designed - more or less satisfactorily.

This is a dubious proposition - and people throughout history have questioned it.

I picked up a book that has languished on my desk (a tribe of tiny ants have made it their home, meanwhile). It is Dickinson, by Helen Vendler.

Poem #423 is about a mental collapse that she suffered from - and never fully recovered from. No one seemed to have noticed this.

Let me repeat that last sentence - no one noticed this - one of the most important events in her life! Her family had no intention of hurting her - but hurt her, they did.

The same thing happens in any business - it doesn't intend to hurt people - but it does!