Publications

Publication details [#10339]

Steinsaltz, David and Lloyd Goldwasser. 2006. Ageing and total quality management: Extending the reliability metaphor for longevity. 15 pp. URL
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

Reliability models of longevity can be usefully extended by examining both the limitations as well as the potential of repair processes. Engineering principles may impose constraints in addition to those of cost. Reparability itself may impose biological costs in reliability and efficiency, and may not always be advantageous. Rather than simply optimizing parameters within a structure that is tightly defined a priori, it is illuminating to examine interactions between high- and low-level design decisions, by analogy with the engineering principle of ”Total Quality Management.” Because the repair of damage is often incomplete or imperfect, the accumulation of repair increases the disorder within the system over time, decreasing the effectiveness of the local controls over repair. Asymmetry and sequestration appear to be ways of channeling the disorder to parts of the systems that are reparable. (David Steinsaltz and Lloyd Goldwasser)