>>>>And stress, I'm sure. They literally do make life and death decisions. If my program has a bug in it, nobody dies from it.
>>>
>>>Until you make programs that do. Maybe software controlling somebody's IV drip and confusing a plus with a minus (just a small bug). Or a program that control's nuclear reaction dampeners in a power plant, where a small bug like that could be a little worrisome. :)
>>
>>That's why the NRC allows monitoring only. Unless that's changed, it has been a while since I worked on those systems.
>
>Suppose the monitoting s/w gives an OK read-out when the patient is actually dying.


That's why there were also redundant hard-wired alarms as a checks and balances type of system. If either system went "off", it needed to be investigated.