History's Worst Software Error

35 thoughts on “History's Worst Software Error”

• Love watching these videos , cancer reminded me of something , can you make a video on how and why people theorize that cancer is caused by using microwaved foods too much

• Sad the guy that made the code had to hide. Sounds like it was more of an alpha software they ran with. And im 47. I used computers from there start in the 80s. Computers back then were so unreliable. So im sure it was not just the software too. Windows wasnt really reliable till NT 2000. That was like 10 versions in… back then computers were still like voodoo magic. You were happy when it worked but expected issues.

• No no no. Your point of 20,000 rads being on you at the japanese plant is only a point of the story. Your missing the 1 thing in equation and comparison…. time. At one point in time that reactor is less rads than the entire rads she took from machine total. Plus now your comparing multiple types of radiation to a single type. Alpha neutron and gamma youd encounter in reactor.

• I live in Dallas Georgia, not far from Marietta at all, but I had never heard of this until now.

• Holy shit, Marietta?!? Scary that something so terrifying could happen so close to my home…

• Ignoring errors is a huge red flag to me as a software engineer, and most errors we encounter are not actually an issue. Just as an example, frontend javascript emitting errors on specific browsers or with specific extensions, or build scripts emitting weird library errors… But I hate ignoring them. I hope they never ignore them on these machines, because error here could literally mean life or death.

• The thing i hate the most is how aecl told the doctor to not make false claims shows that they KNEW it was malfunctioning

• As for Katies interview comments at the end, I have to say there is no such thing as common sense, and the overlooked aspect here is that the company probably had all of these software failings by trying to be cheap, money again being the general root cause for safety regulation shortcuts.

• I’m AgentZerogmc, and I approve this message.

• This error tells us that just because an action is synchronous, it doesn't mean it's instantaneous.

• When I first started using computers, I was annoyed at how often they failed, then I started learning about them and how they actually work, and was truly amazed that you could get them to work for a few seconds, let alone days. In the Admin/troubleshooting arena we have a saying: To err is human, to really fuck things up requires a computer.

• This is so infuriating. How many people have to die before anyone realizes Somethings wrong.

• Honestly, I’m more put off by the answer “this couldn’t have happened” than “something has gone wrong with our machine or by technician error”

• Everyone: This machine is malfunctioning and killing patients.
  AECL: Nope, can't happen.
  FDA (to AECL): HEY.

• Speaking as a software engineer, end users will always find a way to break the code simply because they do not know the limitations on a technical level. Most code is at least a decade or two old that I maintain on a daily basis and there is little to no documentation on what it does or what the error codes mean. If I was in a field that held people's lives in its metaphorical hands I'd probably be having a nervous breakdown on the daily with the amount of poor code I see out in production environments. It horrifies me that there were no hardware safety systems checking if lethal radiation was being pumped into a person. Software is never a good thing to rely on for safety, and it seems like we are forgetting that lesson very quickly with the amount of new software automation features in the tech world. Oh and hardware can fail as well, it should be used as a layer of safety devices not the only layer of safety devices, just like software.

  Edited to remove a second "in" from the phrase "automation features in in the tech world." it should now read as "automation features in the tech world."
  Also not sure why but youtube decided to not show my reply when sorting by top comments, so sort by newest first, i guess.

• Since Kyle didn't explain this: These are electron beams. 25,000 rads is only in that one part of the body hit by the beam. A full-body dose of 25,000 rads would be quickly fatal. This video is very confusing and misleading for people who don't know about radiation.

• AECL literally allowing painful death to just occur and gaslighting everyone is beyond infuriating.

• "the companies responsible for our healthcare equipment wouldn't do that" oh, yes they would

• lol "stop making claims without proof", doctor literally has a patient sitting there burned by their machine.

• All I can think of is how black box AI can't really be checked like this type of software. And that's terrifying

• Heard a high dollar fancy radar engineer once say "software shouldn't be able to break hardware" a lesson he learned after destroying millions of dollars in equipemnt

• Can anyone else hear that strange rubbery rubbing noise when he speaks?

• How the hell are someone at the company for these machines not been held responsible for this criminally. Should at least been incarcerated for 25 years, even in Canada! Criminally negligent even before you include that they claim they don't know who made the code.

  That doctors in the 80's were still somewhat idolized as infallible deities, how was this even transfered to the operators and machines? WTF!!!!!!!!!

  All these machines should been shut down after the third death at least, and the first death after the supposed fix, should have made the permanently shut them down because they have shown both incompetence and complete neglect. And the people who claimed it was safe, behind bars for at least 10 years!

  They had other models FFS! The hospitals should have gotten their money back out of the top management saleries and savings!

  In the two northliest countries of North American continent, murder is acceptable with no one being incarcerated as long as they pay enough money… Just look at Boeing, not just one plane, but multiple. Perhaps it is because it didn't happen to American citizens?…

• Oof, speaking of. I clicked the short, then clicked the main vid. The audio freaks out any time you touch the screen, go into comments, no comment bar. The video in the background borks the video in play.

  Good thing YouTube isn't in charge of radiation treatment.

• Pure nightmare fuel

• Common sense, sure but I think taking things seriously and not being so arrogant and blowing off the incidents certainly would have certainly helped. When it comes to human lives you should never say "that isn't possible!" 🤷🏻‍♀️✌🏻

• And boomers dare to claim our generation is dumber and less capable in everything than them.

• What about the nuclear allert system that many time as go "balistic" thinking it was under enemy attack?

• She sued them the month of 1985 I was born.

  That's unsettling…

• I hate nothing more than the corporate greed of companies like this.
  When somebody tells you something went wrong, you DON'T just turn around at them and say "nuh uh".

• Man whoever it was that decided to do nothing in response to all those deaths is a load of BS

• Thats a real live horror story!😨 its unbelievable to me how medical staff could just ignore malfunction notifications over and over again ignoring it when they saw what was happening to patients. Seriously 🤬🤬🤬🤬😡🤬🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡😡
  Of course the technical company that created the machine is also absolutely at fault!

• It works on my machine…

• The attitude of AECL, "It's simply not possible"

• Great vid. More accurate title would be "History's Worst Software Company." Program worked as intended, but wasn't tested, and company denied what was happening. Someone should be in prison for this, and it's not the programmer.

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