normal accidents: how to minimize

daunting to track safety of pervasive complex system
safety records don't normalize for number or expertise of participants 
as `user-friendly' technology reduces risk, more users join activity
but the clueful ones are already on, so end result is that 
         even as component safety increases, the accident level may not change!

the safer you make it, the lower clue threshold needed to operate, the safer you have to make it
        (perhaps i don't need to dwell here since if anyone knows that 
        trying to compete with stupidity is a losing battle, 
        it's system administrators)

related dialectic between Internet robustness and complexity
see http://www.1-4-5.net/~dmm/complexity_and_the_internet/