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The Cheshire Cat on engineering design
Author(s) -
Hazelrigg George A.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
quality and reliability engineering international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.913
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1099-1638
pISSN - 0748-8017
DOI - 10.1002/qre.1028
Subject(s) - alice (programming language) , context (archaeology) , von neumann architecture , advice (programming) , normative , simple (philosophy) , operations research , computer science , sociology , engineering , epistemology , art history , history , philosophy , archaeology , programming language , operating system
In Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat provides to Alice the underlying tenets of modern normative decision theory. These tenets are clear and simple. Yet few engineers have grasped their significance, and many design methods in common practice violate them with potentially devastating consequences. This paper reviews the advice given to Alice by the Cheshire Cat and places it in the context of engineering design. It goes on to discuss the contributions of von Neumann and Morgenstern as they add to the Cat's advice. Published in 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.