Tech veteran refuses to tinker with dangerous legacy code at power plant
A former software manager, called Socrates, was sent to a power-station turbine overspeed detector, found the code a chaotic mess and chose to leave it untouched.
Socrates, a former manager of a modest software team, was summoned by his employer to assess a client’s power-station monitoring hardware that had been installed without proper documentation. After clearing security he was led to a turbine overspeed detector—a remote installation featuring a dusty CP/M computer linked to extensive wiring. He described the software as truly awful, riddled with random GOTOs, arbitrary I/O addresses and lacking any comments.
Concerned that any alteration could trigger an overspeed event and potentially black out a city, he concluded the prudent choice was to walk away and leave the system as-is. He now cites the episode as a lesson that some legacy code should not be tampered with.
Why it matters
It shows how poorly documented legacy code in critical infrastructure can pose huge risks if altered.
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