Software Diagnostics and Observability Institute

From recorded observations and laboratory experiments to distributed observatories and computational evidence

PDF: https://www.dumpanalysis.org/files/History_of_Diagnostics_Observability_...

A spectrum, a seismic record, a microscopic image, and a DNA sequence are different diagnostic artifacts. Each provides evidence about a process that may be inaccessible to direct observation. Their analysis requires us to connect recorded features with possible mechanisms and identify which additional observations can distinguish competing explanations.

This book follows the history of diagnostics, observability, and debugging across physics, astronomy, chemistry, Earth and planetary sciences, and the life sciences. We consider the development of observation records, controlled experiments, measurement standards, spectroscopy, microscopy, natural archives, molecular methods, distributed observatories, and computational analysis.

The investigation also includes the instruments and procedures through which evidence becomes available. An unexpected pattern may originate in a natural process, sample preparation, an instrument, or a computational transformation. Historical cases show how investigators examined these possibilities, corrected interpretations, and preserved evidence for further analysis.

We connect these developments to our pattern-oriented approach to diagnostics. Recurring analytical situations provide opportunities to compare artifacts, follow their provenance, change viewpoints, and examine visibility limits. Such comparisons help organize an investigation while preserving the scientific meaning of each observation.

The book contains 35 chapters, a chronology, a glossary, an evidence taxonomy, and 96 references. It offers a historical perspective for readers interested in how observations become diagnostic evidence and how that evidence supports explanations of the natural world.