A New Category of Impossible Problems

 

A New Category of Impossible Problems

Consider a new category of problems, impossible because they exist without clear solutions. In some cases, there are no possible solutions. Many of these problems are deeply embedded in systems, often going unnoticed or unrecognized. Corporate or national interests can easily conceal their presence or remain unaware of them. There may come a day when systems become so vast that they must be rejected, as their failure could lead to global disaster. Here are five examples, many of which involve significant government involvement in their creation.

A. Global System Dependencies

No company should be so globally pervasive that a failure in its systems could cause a worldwide catastrophe. This is particularly true for critical systems like airline booking, television networks, and health systems. For example, a technical issue identified by global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike in its antivirus software for Microsoft Windows devices could have had catastrophic consequences. Although engineers fixed this issue, the dependency on global software must be mitigated. This incident occurred on July 19, 2024. However, finding a solution, even with the resolve to do so, remains a significant challenge.

B. Political Control Over Technology

Similarly, no company should have its hardware reporting users' private business to a political entity. This is the concern with Huawei Technologies Co., headquartered in Shenzhen, China, which has been scrutinized for its potential to compromise user privacy for political purposes.

C. Trustworthy Inspection of Passenger Jets

No company should be allowed to sell passenger jets to airlines without thorough and trustworthy inspections by capable engineers. The issues faced by Boeing Co. with its big jets provide a widely reported example of the dangers of inadequate inspections and the potential risks to passenger safety.

D. Certifiable Medical Products

No company should be permitted to market drugs, including vaccines, without reliable and certifiable inspections by qualified medical and statistical experts. Companies like Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax have faced scrutiny over the safety and efficacy of their products. Additionally, the long-standing recommendation for middle-aged men to take aspirin daily to prevent heart disease has been debunked recently, highlighting the potential dangers of incorrect medical advice. This reveals a deeper problem: traditional and even modern medical prescriptions can be wrong and counterproductive.

E. Errant Governmental Mandates

The worst types of these problems arise from misguided governmental mandates made for economic, humanitarian, health, or environmental reasons based on various quasi-scientific sources. Examples include the closure of disapproved energy sources in favor of alternates, regardless of the consequences, open immigration policies, and the deployment of massive military hardware. Governments, regardless of political affiliation, often act without self-reflection or consciousness. Governments do not think.

Such examples are consequences of modern times, seemingly inevitable, natural, and unavoidable. Nevertheless, they must be addressed, or the problems will worsen. These issues will not self-solve or self-correct. Solutions will not come from amateurs in their garages. With computer codes comprising millions of lines, projects costing billions of dollars, highly complex machinery, and ordinary people making decisions they scarcely understand, these problems are immense and require expert intervention.