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SeraphimLabs:
ofcourse not! we are in a technology forum and I can't believe people are so much afraid of technological advancements!
-kalos (October 16, 2014, 08:46 AM)
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Because we're rapidly approaching an extremely dangerous state where nobody knows how this stuff actually works or what to do in an emergency if it is malfunctioning.

Take Apollo 13 for example. Cutting edge technology- the very limit of what the 1970s could deliver in order to put man and machine on the moon and return them to earth safely.

Their survival and recovery was only possible because back then engineers made a point of providing manual overrides for every little feature, and designing a system to be as flexible as it was powerful while at the same time keeping complexity to the minimum needed to do the job.

In the end it was still the sheer luck that an identical craft was attached to a ground simulator that a solution to the power supply problems was found, and a carefully metered quantity of ducttape holding their air filter together so they could breathe.

Working in manufacturing like I do, there is a very highly alarming trend in engineering where you see engineers that have little to no hands-on experience with building and using the systems they design. These engineers will make an amazing design in 3D model on their computer, that when it reaches fabrication is quickly determined to be almost impossible to make and even more difficult to repair if anything goes wrong.

Plus modern people seem to have a phobia of instruments and manual override control panels, resulting in a lot of designs simply eliminating these required features in the interest of making it look appealing and cutting costs. Designs reach production all too frequently now that have no room for error at all, if anything goes wrong it instantly goes horribly wrong and ruins everything.

That's my problem with a lot of new technology. I've worked with technology long enough to automatically not trust any piece of equipment that has not proven itself through regular usage and been inspected as far as practical on the maintenance bench to make sure it is defect-free.

MilesAhead:
why would you need to have the skill to drive?
I am not opposite to it, but it would be an obsolete skill
and to be honest, driving will be so much automated, that you can learn driving within seconds
-kalos (October 16, 2014, 08:45 AM)
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Ever see the whole system lock up due to a hardware fault?  Now imagine you are traveling in your hovercraft 6 inches above the roadway at just below the sound barrier in heavy traffic.  You might want to be able to take over when the computer says "Not my job man!"  When all those systems that keep things in trim are out of service it helps to have someone in control who has some touch.  It can't be developed instantly.  Muscle memory takes time to nurture.

Also the pilots would be hired for special circumstances such as piloting craft in areas where the computer is not reliable.  I'm not enough of a hardware geek to name a bunch of examples.. maybe background radiation as some spacecraft explores an asteroid with interesting attributes or whatnot.

It might be analogous to anarchists having a small cadre of lawyers just in case.  :)

MilesAhead:
I just thought I'd mention I ride on driverless cars every day.  The MetroMover system in Miami is driven by computer.  It's a bit simpler since it doesn't have to react with steering changes.  There's a guide hooked to the hydraulic steering control.

A ride on this thing might quell some of the enthusiasm for the concept.  It works, but it's not what I'd call a smooth ride.  Every now and then it doesn't want to pull out of the station and a tech has to pop the cover to reboot it.  It's kind of a novelty for the tourists.

wraith808:
You might want to be able to take over when the computer says "Not my job man!"
-MilesAhead (October 16, 2014, 04:26 PM)
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Is it OK if I image "The Dude" saying that?

TaoPhoenix:
That might be an important post Seraphim.

Skipping the word "phobia", maybe subconsciously in shows like Star Trek we told ourselves that when the "Big Tech" fails, (transporter, main computer, etc), we have to hope we have at least one lateral outside-the-box thinker around to desperately rig something together so we don't die in 28 minutes.

Not counting actual budget and era issues, their tech was supposed to be a bunch of times better than ours. But are we getting seduced by how clean computer-generated-everything is becoming? Trek TOS is def becoming dated to my cynical eyes, but some of the newer episodes are still watchable. But are we losing a deep message about technology?

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