Concept · Seed idea · last reconsidered August 17, 2026
Correlated error
A failure mode in which multiple supposedly independent checks share the same underlying blind spot.
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Source
Correlated error occurs when errors across ostensibly independent parts of a system are not actually independent, because they share a common cause or a common blind spot.
Interpretation
This project is interested in correlated error as a risk specific to automated and delegated systems: when many outputs trace back to a shared model or shared assumption, their apparent independence can be illusory.
Caution
Identifying correlated error requires knowing the internal workings of a system well enough to see the shared cause, which is often not available from the outside.
Connected ideas
failure mode of
related to
- Distributed knowledgeConcept
Distributed knowledge is one defense against correlated error; when sources of judgment converge, error correlates too.
Continue exploring
- ConceptAutomationA task or decision that has been shifted from human execution to a system that performs it without step-by-step human involvement.
- ConceptDelegationHanding a task to another person or system to perform on one's behalf.
- ConceptDistributed knowledgeKnowledge that exists across a group or system rather than in any single place.