Dark Matter and Deep State: The Unseen Majority of Everything

Explore the often-overlooked aspects of various fields in this thought-provoking conference talk from SREcon23 Europe/Middle East/Africa. Delve into the concept of "dark matter" across government, astronomy, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) as Heidi Waterhouse of Waterhouse Consulting examines the importance of noticing the ordinary and expected. Learn why paying attention to the space between stars, companies in less prominent locations, and uncontroversial laws is crucial. Consider the implications for automation and machine learning when dealing with known and predictable elements, and contemplate the balance between tasks suitable for robots and those requiring human intervention.