>Some human still has to be accountable. Someone has to get fired / go to jail when something screws up.

I remember growing up and always hearing "The computer is down" as an excuse for why things were cancelled/offices closed/buses and trains not running/ad infinitum.

At some point I read a article that pointed out that the reason the computer was down was because a person made a [coding] error: the computer itself was fine.

I've yet to read about how a person who caused the computer to be down was disciplined.

You are running on a outdated model of the world. That one of only discipline keeps people working, keeps them productive, keeps the in line.

We saw how that worked out in Soviet Russia and the culture it gave birth to in its aftermath. Artificially held up discipline by institutions and hierarchies is worthless. It only encourages subversion and thus most of the productivity is wasted on hunting for laziness and updating of ever more intricate behavioral programing rules, which make the organization ever more unable to react fast and decisive.

The only discipline worth a damn is intrinsic. People who want something, want to get somewhere. They need no shepards and prison guards, they need only a support harness, they need resources and people concerned about them. The culture that produces such people is required for things to succeed. Any culture that does not, can not succeed and is basically a parasite to cultures who do.

Why does a person need to be disciplined because they made a mistake?

And here perhaps was the greatest mistake the software profession made! Not making ourselves into a real profession, with actual accountability. It was terribly convenient for so long not to have consequences when things went wrong. It's less convenient now.