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Post by jacquelope on Aug 30, 2011 8:50:00 GMT -6
Psyche. Looks like the luddites were right this time. news.yahoo.com/ap-impact-automation-air-dulls-pilot-skill-070507795.htmlAP IMPACT: Automation in the air dulls pilot skill By JOAN LOWY - Associated Press | AP – 34 mins ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Are airline pilots forgetting how to fly? As planes become ever more reliant on automation to navigate crowded skies, safety officials worry there will be more deadly accidents traced to pilots who have lost their hands-on instincts in the air. Hundreds of people have died over the past five years in "loss of control" accidents in which planes stalled during flight or got into unusual positions that pilots could not correct. In some cases, pilots made the wrong split-second decisions, with catastrophic results — for example, steering the plane's nose skyward into a stall instead of down to regain stable flight. Spurred in part by federal regulations that require greater reliance on computerized flying, the airline industry is suffering from "automation addiction," said Rory Kay, an airline captain and co-chairman of a Federal Aviation Administration committee on pilot training. "We're seeing a new breed of accident with these state-of-the art planes."
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Post by blueneck on Aug 30, 2011 11:02:32 GMT -6
This is indeed a danger when automation is carried to its extreme - the loss of real skills and experience as is the case with thepilot example, automation done right is a job enhancer creating postions for skilled technicians
I remember 10 years ago when we had a serious fatal computer mainframe crash at the company while trying to install an upgrade. the computers were down for a month we refer to as the month from hell.
if it werent for a few of us "old timers" who remembered a time when computers did not dominate the workplace and still knew how to do things without them - we kept things going. had it not been the case the company surely would have ended up oiut of business or seriously diminished at best when finally coming back online
Also as a side note - the Luddites were highly skilled artisans protesting the commoditization of labor and the devaluation of their skills - we must be careful not to use the term as an epithaph as it often can be
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Post by jacquelope on Aug 30, 2011 11:10:24 GMT -6
I use Luddite as a badge of honor. They'll get their day when some major automated factory gets hijacked. Stuxnet and its descendants will probably be what makes sure of that.
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Aug 30, 2011 11:42:13 GMT -6
I think there's been a movement to over-automate and over-computerize in many areas in today's world.
There are a lot of areas that just aren't amenable to automation or computerization. Unfortunately, a lot of these areas have still had automation/computerization forced upon them, with worsening of outcomes.
Computers still cannot think independently, and will always have limits to what they are programmed to respond to and analyze.
Attempts to computerize medicine, for example, are a definite step backwards. Though there can be some limited benefits, the technology has been forced into areas where it has no benefit whatsoever.
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Post by jacquelope on Aug 31, 2011 14:59:58 GMT -6
The day computers can think independently is the day all of humanity will become Luddites. Or extinct.
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