"[I]t is the weakness of coupling between the parts ... that allows greater predictability." #readingToday

The fact that the limitations of discrete mechanisms only project uncertainty into fewer outcomes, without actually increasing the prevailing certainty, might have disappointed Hobbes, as it continues to disappoint users of technology today. The separation of systems into parts is often argued as a strategy for reliability, but, as we've seen, it is the weakness of coupling between the parts, rather than the number of possible outcomes, that allows greater predictability.

The Search for Certainty, Mark Burgess, 2013