An Accident of History: Human and Machine Responsibility in Catastrophic Events – Wellesley College's Elizabeth Turner Jordan ’59 Humanities Lecture September 23, 2010

As recent events have made so painfully clear, massive technical systems can—and do—fail catastrophically. When they do, we as a society struggle to understand why—what combination of the “human” and the “machine” is responsible? Professor Galison’s lecture will explore the powerful technical, sociological, moral, and philosophical questions at stake as we strive to determine who or what is to blame for these catastrophic failures.

Peter Galison is the author of Einstein’s Clocks, Poincare’s Maps: Empires of Time (2003) and Objectivity (2007), co-authored with Lorraine Daston. He has also collaborated on two documentary films: The Ultimate Weapon: The H-Bomb Dilemma, about the creation of the first hydrogen bomb, and, Secrecy, about government secrecy, which premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

Official Website: http://www.wellesley.edu/NCH/