The effect of representation on system safety

The word `representation´, in the context of expert systems, usually refers to the representation of knowledge. And there is indeed considerable literature devoted to discussion of the most appropriate representation for different domains and for different purposes. The author is concerned with the representation of intent and the representation of design; with what one requires of such representations; and with whether the form which expert systems take tends to lead to use of `good´ or `bad´ representations in this context