MODERATOR: Harold P. Van Cott Despite the fact that society relies heavily on automation to perform many important functions, automation doesn't always work. Some claim that the social costs of the accidents and injuries associated with automation outweigh its benefits. As examples they cite statistics (1971 to 1991) on 10,227 people killed in 160 airplane crashes; 2,046 in railroad accidents; 6,998 in 22 ship disasters; and 5,353 in 24 industrial explosions. In the same period, 231 million gallons of oil spilled into oceans, and there were countless industrial fires, spills, and other calamities. z All these events, and many others not o noted here, were technology related. Many Vl ~ involved automation, some very smart ~ automation. Nevertheless, despite impres~ sive advances in machine intelligence, fun~ damental and nagging questions about how ~ to design and manage the risks associated ~ with automation persist. z Can the claim of the skeptics that all o automation even the smartest is inherI« ently unsafe be true? Is the achievement of a:: Ia truly safe system an impossible dream? Vl :l Can acceptable levels of safety be obtained -' by such stratagems as a situationally dynamic balance in the allocation of intelligence and control between humans and machines? Or by making machines still smarter so that humans and human error will be excluded? Or by improved personnel selection and training? Experts hold a range of views on these questions. Extremists at one end would curtail or limit automation. At the other extreme are those who accept the inexorable necessity of automation in society. In between are more moderate positions. Human factors specialists advocate a delicate balance between human and machine: a sort of buddy system in which one keeps the other from messing up. Computer engineers dream of future systems so much smarter and more reliable than humans that the need for human intervention would be eliminated. Meanwhile, they devise error-tolerant and fail-safe systems, like crumple zones in some new automobiles, to cushion the blow of human and machine failures. Regulators believe that safety can be regulated by the application of design and performance standards. The legal system handles the problem through tort law and punishing liability suits. Prominent