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we are safe
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this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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People don't have anywhere near enough knowledge of how things work to make their choices based on trust. People aren't getting on the subway because they trust the engineers did a good job; they're doing it because it's what they can afford and they need to get to work.
Similarly, people aren't using Reddit or Adobe or choosing their cars firmware based on trust. People choose what is affordable and convenient.
In civil engineering public works are certified by an engineer; its literally them saying if this fails i am at fault. The public is trusting the engineer to say its safe.
Yeah, people may not know that the subway is safe because of engineering practices, but if there was a major malfunction, potentially involving injuries or loss of life, every other day, they would know, and I'm sure they would think twice about using it.
What's being discussed here is the hiring of engineers rather than consumer choices. Hiring an engineer is absolutely an expression of trust. The business trusts that the engineer will be able to concretely realize abstract business goals, and that they will be able to troubleshoot any deviations.
AI writing code is one thing, but intuitively trusting that an AI will figure out what you want for you and keep things running is a long way off.
In my hometown there's two types of public transit: municipal and commercial. I was surprised to learn that a lot of folk, even the younger ones, only travel by former, even though the commercials are a lot faster, frequent and more comfortable. When asked why, the answer is the same: If anything happens on municipal transport - you can sue the transport company and even the city itself. If anything happens on a commercial line - there's only a migrant driver and "Individual Enterpreneur John Doe" with a few leased buses to his name. Trust definitely plays a factor here, but you're right that it's definitely not based on technical knowledge.