noun

1. A universal vulnerability of communication that impacts all aspects of       
   commerce.

2. A series of events that result in negative outcomes due to misunderstandings,          misinterpretations or decisions executed with incomplete information.

3. Pertains to the buying and selling of goods and services and social exchanges.

Name Origin  Monika Blaumueller coined the term Babel Sequences to succinctly convey the sweeping magnitude of the challenges that Luce, the automated reasoning engine, was conceived to address. The name comes from The Tower of Babel, an origin myth about how language separates people.

Background  Engineers, scientists, lawyers, policymakers, etc., all have ever-evolving dialects. Teams that have been working together even a few weeks, develop esoteric terminology. In some cases, the same words mean different things. In other cases, different meanings are ascribed to the same words by different groups. Critical information gets lost in translation. Finally, information is pared down as it moves up the organizational ladder from subject matter experts to generalists and busy leaders. These black holes are ubiquitous and have profound consequences.

A Satirical Example was depicted on Saturday Night Live in 1994. Before retiring, the chief nuclear scientist instructed his crew: “You can't put too much water in the nuclear reactor.” Some interpreted the instruction to mean that no amount of water is too much. Others concluded just the opposite, that the one thing they must avoid at all costs is excess water. After the chief leaves, the remaining team is deeply divided about to how to avert an impending disaster. an admired work culture.

A Real Example of a Babel Sequence comes from India. In 2021, during its second COVID-19 spike, the country’s need for medical oxygen suddenly increased tenfold. In an unprecedented move, the government requisitioned oxygen from its steel industry. Industrial oxygen canisters may contain higher percentages of oxygen (versus other elements) than their medical counterparts. This is referred to as oxygen purity. However, industrial oxygen cylinders are not sterilized (another interpretation of purity) or transported with sterile chain of custody precautions required for medical use. Because of the lack of sterilization and handling precautions, some patients treated with industrial oxygen developed black fungus in their lungs.