The Therac-25 was supposed to be the pinnacle of medical technology—a radiation therapy machine controlled entirely by software to cure cancer. Instead, between 1985 and 1987, it delivered massive overdoses of radiation to patients, burning them from the inside out. The cause wasn't malice, but a "race condition"—a bug that only triggered when a technician typed too fast. "The Ghost Code" is a chilling investigation into the most infamous software failure in history. It reveals how corporate denial, lack of hardware interlocks, and overconfidence in code led to tragedy. For modern developers and engineers, it is a crucial case study on why "error 404" in the real world doesn't just crash a browser—it costs lives.
