Design beyond human abilities

This talk is an essay on design. In the 16 century, Michel de Montaigne invented a new genre of writing he called an essai, which in modern French translates to attempt. Since then, the best essays have been explorations by an author of a topic or question, perhaps or probably without a definitive conclusion. Certainly there can be no theme or conclusion stated at the outset, repeated several times, and supported throughout, because a true essay takes the reader on the journey of discovery that the author has or is experiencing. This essay—on design—is based on my reflections on work I’ve done over the past 3 years. Some of that work has been on looking at what constitutes an “ultra large scale software system” and on researching how to keep a software system operating in the face of internal and external errors and unexpected conditions.