Systemic Error-Immunity: A Complex Systems Approach to Safety Engineering in High-Risk Industrial Environments
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper introduces the theory of Systemic Error-Immunity (시스템적 오류 내성 모델) to resolve the paradoxical failure modes of modern high-risk industrial safety paradigms. Traditional safety engineering (Safety-I) operates under a linear, mechanistic assumption: that absolute compliance, granular checklists, and zero-error mandates eliminate catastrophes. We argue that complex socio-technical systems—such as large-scale construction sites and heavy industrial operations—behave as non-linear, adaptive networks. In such environments, bureaucratic hyper-regulation strips frontline practitioners of adaptive agency, creating structural rigidity that amplifies hidden fault lines into catastrophic phase transitions (Black Swan events). Drawing on statistical physics, complex systems, and immunological self-organization, this framework posits that genuine safety is not the passive absence of errors, but the active cultivation of controlled microscopic perturbations. By intentionally exposing systems to manageable micro-errors and leveraging algorithmic feedback, high-risk systems develop systemic antifragility, dynamically reorganizing away from catastrophic collapse.
Author: Kim, Taehee
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220356366