Graceful Degradation
When Netflix's recommendation service fails, you don't see an error - you see a different video stream. The brain works the same way: damage to one region degrades cognitive performance proportionally rather than catastrophically, because processing is distributed across the network rather than localized in single critical nodes.
Design systems to continue operating at reduced capacity when components fail, rather than failing completely. Neural distributed representations exemplify this - damage degrades performance proportionally rather than catastrophically.
Business Application of Graceful Degradation
Aircraft illustrate graceful degradation: losing one engine allows continued flight at reduced performance; losing hydraulic pressure reduces but doesn't eliminate control authority. Provides partial redundancy without duplicating entire systems.