Because we don't know what we don't know... until it happens

Disaster Spurs Innovation
On the front of its Science Times section, the New York Times (7/20, D1, Broad) reports, "Disasters teach more than successes," an idea "widely accepted among engineers. ... Disaster, in short, can become a spur to innovation." Even though "the trial-and-error process of building machines and industries has, over the centuries, resulted in the loss of much blood and many thousands of lives," the "sometimes appalling" failures "are inevitable, and given this fact, engineers say it pays to make good use of them to prevent future mistakes. The result is that the technological feats that define the modern world are sometimes the result of events that some might wish to forget." Experts expect the recent "catastrophic failure" of a Gulf oil rig that "took 11 lives and started the worst offshore oil spill in United States history -- will drive the technological progress."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/science/20lesson.html