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Explanations for failures in designed and evolved systems
Randolph M Nesse1,2, Jay B Labov3, Guru Madhavan3
1Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.
PNAS Nexus
|May 1, 2025
Summary
This study compares why machines and organisms are vulnerable to failure. While some reasons overlap, fundamental differences exist, particularly in design trade-offs and the absence of a perfect blueprint in biology, challenging the machine metaphor for living systems.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Engineering
- Philosophy of Science
Background:
- Engineers analyze machine failure origins; biologists are newly investigating organismal disease susceptibility.
- Vulnerability in machines and organisms shares some global explanations like design flaws and environmental factors.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare explanations for machine failure with those for biological vulnerability.
- To explore the implications of the machine metaphor for understanding biological complexity.
Main Methods:
- Comparative analysis of failure explanations in engineering and biology.
- Examination of global categories of vulnerability (e.g., design deficiencies, trade-offs).
Main Results:
- Shared explanations include design deficiencies, corrupted plans, assembly variations, environmental factors, and trade-offs.
- Key differences lie in machines adhering to blueprints versus species lacking them, and distinct trade-off objectives (performance vs. gene transmission).
Conclusions:
- A common framework for failure analysis is potentially valuable but requires acknowledging fundamental biological differences.
- The 'body as a designed machine' metaphor can obscure the nature of complex biological systems and foster misconceptions.
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