History's Worst Software Error

Kyle Hill explains how a race condition in the Therac-25 radiation therapy machine led to fatal overdoses.

In 1985, a state-of-the-art radiation therapy device called the THERAC-25 started blasting holes through patients' bodies, leading to the world’s first death by radiation treatment overdose. It killed two more people before anyone knew what was going wrong. Why? SHOW NOTES: "Fatal Dose" by Barbara Wade Rose: barbarawaderose.com/journalism en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25 ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8102762 sutori.com/en/story/therac-25-accident-summary--zTRpW48523CD… users.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/SWE/Papers/THERAC25.html web.stanford.edu/class/cs240/old/sp2014/readings/therac-25.p… MUSIC: Composed for [THE FACILITY] Meydän “Elän” Meydän “Freezing but warm” Meydän “Elk” Meydän “Away” Meydän “Deadly Isotopes” Meydän 💪 JOIN [THE FACILITY] for members-only live streams, behind-the-scenes posts, and the official Discord: patreon.com/kylehill 👕 NEW MERCH DROP OUT NOW! shop.kylehill.net 🎥 SUB TO THE GAMING CHANNEL: youtube.com/channel/UCfTNPE8mXGBZPC1nfVtOJTw ✅ MANDATORY LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, AND TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS 📲 FOLLOW ME ON SOCIETY-RUINING SOCIAL MEDIA: 🐦 twitter.com/Sci_Phile 📷 instagram.com/sci_Phile/ 😎: Kyle ✂: Charles Shattuck 🤖: @Claire Max 🎹: bensound.com 🎨: Mr. Mass youtube.com/c/MysteryGiftMovie 🎵: freesound.org 🎼: Mëydan “Changes” (meydan.bandcamp.com/) by Meydän is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org) “Away” (meydan.bandcamp.com/track/away) by Meydän is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) “Freezing but warm” (meydan.bandcamp.com/track/freezing-but-warm) by Meydän is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) “Elk” (meydan.bandcamp.com/track/elk) by Meydän is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) “Further” (meydan.bandcamp.com/track/further) by Meydän is licensed under CC BY 3.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) “Unconceivable Journey” (meydan.bandcamp.com/track/unconceivable-journey) by Meydän is licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)