Nye's Look on the "human factor"

     Human error is the cause for numerous deaths and injuries in our world. Vicente addresses human error as "the human factor." He talks about the many times that a disaster occurs its because of the human factor. The error is caused by our lack of knowledge involve a certain piece of technology.

     Vonnegut addresses "the human factor" in another way. He focuses not so much on the lack of knowledge, but the carelessness. The product "ice-nine" can destroy pretty much anything, and not much thought is needed. In the story Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut writes about characters that have "ice-nine" and what they chose to do with it. The characters chose to try to use to as a way to get ahead in life (when in reality it just makes their lives worse). They don't care what they have to do or how to do it. They were careless when it came to the product "ice-nine" because of that, it ended with everything getting frozen.

     The third author, David Nye, wrote a book titled Technology Matters: Questions to Live With. In one particular chapter he, too, talks about "the human factor." He, too,  looks at it a little differently. " Human intervention also can worsen 'natural' problems " (pg. 164). Instead of looking at technology as a world of machines, he took a step back and thought of technology in a way that I would never think of. Tornadoes, hurricanes, fires etc happen all the time in our world, however have the effects of them increased? Hurricanes wouldn't be as disastrous if we didn't build on the ocean front. They would pass by and not destroy any houses because they would no longer be in their path. Having a house on the beach, is a risk worth taking for most people. We would never be able to not build on the beach, but it is just an human error.

   Human errors have become part of our lives, how could they not? Humans are not perfect, therefore we will cause some problems. I don't think we should try to fix that, it would be a rather boring life if everything ran perfectly. I think it is how we handle the errors in our lives that may need improvement. How we fix our problems is how we define ourselves.