Life Tables for Machines

Engineers have long adapted demographic life‑tables to model when nonliving assets (bridges, telephony equipment, tractors) ‘die,’ producing survivor curves that determine maintenance, replacement, and insurance costs. Treating artifacts as populations converts material fragility into statistics that drive procurement, safety rules, and fiscal planning. — Counting the lives of things reshapes public budgets, regulatory timing, and which failures are deemed acceptable or preventable — affecting safety, equity, and urban planning.