Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.
Fine tuning the institutions built by powdered wig guys two hundred years ago is a long shot at holding the whole thing together.
The bonus for bankers fragilizes the system. Someone has the upside at the expense of others.
Given the extent of the exposures of major banks around the world to A.I.G., and in light of the extreme fragility of the system, there was a significant risk that A.I.G.'s failure could have sparked a global banking panic.
In space, everything is dependent on everything else and one hiccup causes a lot of ripple effects.
Machines built by human beings they will function correctly if we provide them with a very specific environment. But if that environment is changed, they won't function at all.
In this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.
We are putting more and more power into a system which is less and less able to carry it reliably.
Any system that is deprived of its natural volatility, with government up (unintelligible) volatile, any system becomes very fragile.
I believe that if you are talking about economic stress, the systems of the world are very fragile, and if we put our hope and trust in the systems that men have created, they will guarantee failure.
In software, the chain isn't as strong as its weakest link; it's as weak as all the weak links multiplied together.