THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700



Date: Fri, 08 Oct 1999 12:10:40 -0700

03 00050 61 99100801



Mr. David Perlman
Science Editor
perlmand@sfgate.com
Arts and Science
San Francisco Chronicle
901 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Subject:   NASA Crashes on Mars

Dear David,

You might be interested in connecting the dots between your story about losing $125M on Mars, recent stories about the High Cost of Medical Mistakes, and Intel's delay releasing its 820 chipset. They all have a common cause that shows "communication," "expediting," and "problem handling," mainly compound error over time and distance. Our greatest risks are secretes in the mind formed by meaning drift, commonly called "limited span of attention," in an age of information overload. As science editor, you might query our friends in cognitive science about the startling phenomenon that is becoming more, and more evident in the rush to use cell phones, fax, email and constant meetings. See what you think...

Sincerely,

THE WELCH COMPANY



Rod Welch
rowelch@ibm.net