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SUMMARY:Prestige Lecture: The Dependability of Complex Socio-technical Sys
 tems - Prof. Ross Anderson
DTSTART:20100203T180000Z
DTEND:20100203T200000Z
UID:TALK21611@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Neil Johnson
DESCRIPTION:Since the invention of agriculture\, we humans been organising
  large systems - early examples being the Roman army and the Chinese civil
  service. But the large systems of today are turning into something qualit
 atively different\, thanks to the interaction of many people with complex 
 software and global scale.  Even a system owned by one company\, such as F
 acebook\, may have users from countries that are at war with each other\; 
 and many systems\, from Europe's electricity grid to the international pay
 ments network and the Internet itself\, are not under the control of any s
 ingle company or even government. Our civilisation depends on this infrast
 ructure\, and there's been nothing like it before. The recent hiccups in t
 he international credit system might prompt us to ask what we know about t
 he dependability of complex socio-technical systems\, and how this underst
 anding might be improved. 
LOCATION:Wolfson Hall\, Churchill College\, University of Cambridge
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