[cap-talk] Pola beyond software (was: Failure isolation)

[Karp, Alan H]

I've sent this quote out before, but it amplifies what MarcS wrote:

"The second manner of diminishing the influence of authority does not consist in stripping society of some of its rights, nor in paralyzing its efforts, but in distributing the exercise of its powers among various hands, and in multiplying functionaries, to each of whom is given the degree of power necessary for him to perform his duty.  There may be nations whom this distribution of social powers might lead to anarchy; but in itself, it is not anarchical.  The authority thus divided is, indeed, rendered less irresistible and less perilous, but it is not destroyed.

                                                        -- Alexis de Tocqueville
                                                           Democracy in America
                                                           1850

________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
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(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp