subsystems such as the ins generate more than enough information for some other part of the system to monitor current and historical state. Use of
this data could provide improved warning and predictive capability.
This sort of on going "big picture" global monitoring would be mandatory
for applications such as nuclear power, but seems sadly lacking in
aircraft.
Exactly my thoughts. And it neither starts nor ends at the computer level: AF447 was not the first AC brought down by a pitot failure. The mistake I see there is what I call 'false redundancy'. While the sensors are there in triple, they are not truly redundant as
a) they are the same type and manufacturer
b) they operate on the same physical principle.
Since numerous ways to measure air speed exist, I cannot understand why not even one truly redundant airspeed measuring device is used in AC. (Boeing is the same here,
AFAIK).