24k #15 — Vote like your life depends on it

Let me begin with a disclaimer, lest I spread voter misinformation. The particular MIL STD 1750A systems we’re talking about today each have 24k addressable memory locations, but in 16-bit words not the 8-bit bytes.

For the 15th installment of our 24 x 24k for 2024 series, we’re talking about voting. Specifically, we’re talking about the quadruplex redundant digital fly-by-wire system installed on the General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) F-16 C/D.

My thoughts are elsewhere today, so I don’t really have a lot to say about this system. I’m happy for whatever it is the systems do to keep planes flying and pilots alive. They vote like somebody’s life depends on it. So should we all.

The F-16 digital fly-by-wire system differs from the American political system in several ways. One is that it has a backup. The backup system, also quadruplex redundant, has 8k memory for each unit. The primary system is written in the Jovial-79 high-level language, while the backup is written in assembly. The only backup system the US has ever invoked to settle a national election has 9 justices (a majority of that system at present appears likewise programmed with an archaic dialect that‘s difficult to reason about). Let’s hope that nothing prevents the primary 150M+-plex-redundant control system of the US from keeping the ship of state upright.

This post pairs well with “One Vision” / Queen / Iron Eagle: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack / 1986