When it comes to self-preservation instincts, humans are arguably the most self-preservative species one can find. We have made several strides when it comes to different fields like healthcare, education and food in a bid to help us live longer and better. I believe we passed on our survival instincts to machines too.
MOST SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT HAPPENS IN SAFE MODE
When we software engineers write code, under normal circumstances, the machine looks through the code before running it to ensure that we're not trying to get the machine to commit suicide either intentionally or by mistake. We mostly write code in "safe mode" which is in a way helps development because a failure won't crash the system. This is especially beneficial for junior developers and new entrants into the industry who are likely to break a lot of things in process of learning. Safe mode for all its benefits also means that the machine can't perform at its true speed because the process of checking the code before responding tends to add up as the load on the machine increases. There are applications that require speed above all else, so much so that conventional rules must be broken.
WE NEED UNSAFE MODE TO ACCESS THE FULL CAPACITY OF THE MACHINE
Gaming is one field that requires speed. All that fast-paced action-packed environment is as a result of pushing the machine to her very limit, milking every ounce of utility that the machine can muster in order to run very performant programmes. All of this is done in "unsafe mode". Unsafe mode is used when you want the machine to disregard all normal conventions and guidelines that prevents machines from failing horribly, the benefit is that the machine performs a lot faster as they don't have to scrutinize the code before responding.
UNSAFE MODE IS DANGEROUS
Unsafe mode, like the name implies, is quite dangerous as a small error can mean that you need to replace the entire machine because you fried the hard drive. For context, imagine that you have to replace your phone or laptop whenever it crashes because of a bug. Unsafe mode is like when you root your phone because you want to be able to control and delete any application on your phone, whether or not it's a system application.
Unsafe mode during software development is akin to a developer telling the machine "Look, I want you to trust me with your life, I and my colleagues are going to be giving you some instructions, don't question these instructions, we know what we're doing. In the off-chance that we're slightly wrong, you will most likely die, but this is a risk I and my team are willing to take". You and your team must either be really good or you have a ton of cash to burn.