tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071936218849577375.post1918441970078012489..comments2024-03-15T07:09:05.731-07:00Comments on Unintentional Irony: It's Always about the BloodJames Killushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08265296146264452333noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071936218849577375.post-57201499359244397332008-02-13T12:41:00.000-08:002008-02-13T12:41:00.000-08:00Many years ago, at a company lunch, I was talking ...Many years ago, at a company lunch, I was talking to one of the software guys, or, more accurately, he was holding forth for the benefit of the secretary who was (I later came to learn) his girlfriend. In other words, he was talking to me but showing off for her.<BR/><BR/>During the course of it all, he mentioned that it's often the case that the body's immune response was often responsible for most of the damage from an illness, that someone who was quite sick often had already killed off the pathogens, but their immune system was still hammering at them long afterwards.<BR/><BR/>I commented that this was to be expected; pathogens show an exponential growth curve generally, so any control system that has to deal with exponentially growing inputs is bound to have some overshoot in it.<BR/><BR/>He stared back at me blankly, and it was at that moment that I realized that he wasn't nearly as smart as he was pretending to be. Later events proved that spot judgement to be spot on.James Killushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08265296146264452333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5071936218849577375.post-56630138734500716862008-02-13T11:56:00.000-08:002008-02-13T11:56:00.000-08:00Most of these circulate in the blood as inactive p...<I>Most of these circulate in the blood as inactive precursors until they are activated by trigger enzymes that form when blood vessels are ruptured or something else unpleasant happens.<BR/></I><BR/><BR/>From time to time I design information input systems that require a level of foresight and planning to deal with unexpected consequences. Compared to physical processes exchanging information in a living organism this is completely trivial stuff. But it seems complicated to me until I get the flow worked out.<BR/><BR/>The point here is I can't even begin to imagine a system that required me to include chemical precursors that would react with enzymes in emergency situations. Nor can I begin to imagine debugging such a system.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com