The issue of automation as well as its impacts on the operational risks has received much attention within the industry, airlines, interest groups, unions and associations, academia and research, politics and the general staff as well as the general public and the society at large including the media. It is a general assumption that most people have that the latest aircraft with latest and advanced technology are safer. While on the other hand, other people still feel that the automation and the new technologies have put the life of man at an increased risk (Funk, Lyall, 2003). Nevertheless, aircraft manufactures maintain their stand that the more improved the designs and technology invested in aircraft manufacturing, the more the enhancement of flight safety and the operational efficiency. Although automation has several positive effects on aviation safety, there are actually a few significant negative effects of automation.
The understanding of this controversy will enable the appreciation of the main differences that exist between machines and humans. These differences will shed light on the reason why the aspect of automation is highly stressed on the improvement of safety. To some part, the examination of these differences will provide an insight on why some people claim that automation poses negative effects on the safety of the air travelers and the crew. A fully human-controlled aircraft B leaves and takes to air at the same time with all the controls with it. Assuming the passengers are in both the aircrafts A and B, it is expected that the passengers will express varying degree of safety concern (Wells, Rodrigues, 2003). Assuming that the design of the aircrafts is similar in the two aircrafts and that all conditions are constant, it will not miss a point of doubt for the air passengers to express some more fear in aircraft A that is manned by a computer in the remote location.
Man has evolved over along period and has become adapted to conditions that present before him. He is therefore complex and has the capacity to analyze and synthesize ideas and come up with solutions to complex problems. Man has been known as a perfect decision maker surpassing even the smartest machines. For machines, a lot of programming is a prerequisite to their function and once the code is fed, the withdrawal of the command becomes almost impossible (Soekkha, 1997). Therefore, man scores higher than machines in process making processes. To make a clear comparison between the machines and humans, it is relevant to look into their abilities to perform tasks. However, this does not act as real measure on how safe the air passengers and the crew will be on an aircraft. Taking this scenario, an aircraft, call it aircraft A, controlled by a remote computer pilot and aircraft B, being manned by a human pilot, will give a true picture of what aviation safety will be when automation is left to control the aircrafts. Aircraft A, which is controlled by a machine, leaves or takes off with a single command from a computer on land. It is worthwhile to appreciate that the aircraft has no ability to move unless a human supplies that command.
The super memory in man perhaps makes him be smarter than all machines. Compared to computers, the memory of man is never filled up there is always room to contain critical data. Man is able to remember sensations, feelings, experiences and other sensitive procedures that he has ever learnt. His ability to store and execute critical information may not be compared with machines. Equally, man has a super memory to build his intuitions, his experience and his discernments in life. Humans have the ability of adjusting to the conditions that may come and that are purely unexpected. When these conditions arise, the human pilot will try and adjust his abilities for the safety of the passengers and himself (Funk, Lyall, 2003). What about the computer pilot Assuming that all commands are fed to the system and the entire journey, from taking off to the landing is fully programmed, the aircraft A will be successful to land with al set conditions are constant.
The computer pilot will not have options of adjusting incase something wrong happens.
This makes people to think that automation is taking human being a step further in a world of insecurity as man is able to take actions very fast than machines and this is called airmanship in aviation.
Some opponents of automation have suggested that man has a special instinct which enables him to perform tasks in a natural way. It is suggested that a newly born baby thrown into a swimming pool will be able to swim due to special instincts that exist naturally in humans. While comparing the machines, opponents of automation have insisted that there is a lot of artificiality in the manner machines operate and because of this aspect, automation in aviation is close to a dangerous venture to both the crew and passengers. The ability of humans to adapt to all sorts of environments may not compare to any machine on earth (Mosier, n.d). The force of circumstances of life and the constant exposure of human beings into problematic environment provides a lesson which humans learn easily but machines are not able to benefit from this crucial aspect. Once there is a problem, humans can devise mechanisms to counter the problem the next time it appears. Machines will not have this lesson and will not recall of any circumstance. This suggests that humans are safer pilots without the need of automation of the aviation control.
There is a potential problem in the automated systems and this difficulty emanates from the manner in which machines and onboard computers may be able to compensate for abnormal events that in most times is totally unknown to the crew. To a majority of people, the automatic compensation for abnormal events may sound very appealing. However, there is always a border line to the capacity of the systems to compensate for the abnormal events. When the automation is compensating for some event or condition that is worsening without the knowledge of the crew, it can lead to a situation where it may be too late for the crew to override the system and further prevent a catastrophe (Wells, Rodrigues, 2003). This is a special illustration of how automation can pose safety risks. Even if machines should be appreciated about their capacity to perform operations fast, there is no machine that can compare with human brain. With the ability of humans to remember past events and keep as much commands or instructions as they are available, humans make the best pilot even in the modern time and the future. May times machines break causing the loss of information and the function of the collapsed system is no more. Machines are very uncertain one is never sure when they are going to embarrass.
Automation processes are constantly susceptible to errors. For instance, the digital navigation equipments are often exposed to keyboard entry errors or errors caused by fingers. The keyboard errors in most cases go unnoticed by the crew and this can cause great dangers and risks to the safety of the crew and the air travelers in general. Keyboard errors have happened in history with the best example being the case where KAL 007 flew off the course due to a mere keyboard error. Another great disadvantage of automation is that automatic devices are always installed one at a time without considering the overall pilot-cockpit system.
The automation processes may be encouraged in industries where monotonous processes are done by machines. In offices, accounting procedures may involve monotonous entries of records and carrying out some huge calculations which take a lot of time (Graeber, n.d). Software for making these processes easier and faster like never before have been developed and man can work with significant ease. Furthermore, automation and the use of robots have been used in areas where they truly deserve to be used. In chemical industries, robots can be used in handling highly toxic chemicals which may not be advisable or humans to handle. The same is true during an incident of fire rescue. Robots made of fireproof materials can get into the hot fire and save the lives of people who may be stuck in the building that has caught fire.
The aspect of uncertainty raises safety issues when trying to automate the whole process of aviation. At one time in his life, Albert Einstein, a great scientist known of his most famous theory of relativity once said that computers are extraordinarily fast, precise and stupid. Referring to human beings, Einstein made an observation that humans are incredibly slow, imprecise but very brilliant. However, the combination of the two, humans and computers, make a powerful amalgamation beyond human imagination. Basically, it may seem to be a prudent approach to make things easier by turning to the automation of procedures. This then calls for the embracement of and turning to automation since humans surely need automation to make the performance of tasks easer and faster. It is apparent that the use of automation procedures will definitely increase in the future. The human role in an increasingly automated environment also needs to be studied and the principles established for the setting of standards governing automation procedures (Graeber, n.d). This is important since automation keeps on playing a significant role in the modern society.
The turning to automation procedure in aviation exploits major weaknesses of humans in the manner man performs his tasks. Man is generally believed to be slow in action which makes him to be replaced by machines which act in real-time. Once a command is issued to a machine, the action is executed very fast to cause an effect. Inaccuracy is another drawback that befalls humans. While machines are fast and accurate in carrying out operations, humans may be annoyingly inaccurate, a problem that cannot be compensated for and never tolerable in aviation. Mistakes in aviation mean endangering human life. It is like a doctor making mistakes during critical operation. The patents life will be compromised.
While machines can perform repetitive tasks, human beings are easily bored and become disoriented when tasks are done again and again. The ability of performing one task over and over can be monotonous to human beings but machines can perfectly repeat commands a million times. This is required in aviation. Machines are perfect in computational speed than humans. In a microsecond, machines can handle millions of mathematical problems which are impossible for humans (Funk, Lyall, 2003). The last weakness of humans is that man is very unpredictable and forgetful. The memory of computers makes it possible to easily retrieve information regardless to the situation. Human beings may be affected by a number of factors which will negatively impact information retrieval. Machines therefore may have a greater chance for overtaking the aviation industry.
A number of airplane accidents have often been caused human errors and not as it was earlier assumed to be caused by mechanical failures. Despite the gain in technology, the importance of human beings still remains to be important in the field of aviation. Man has to ensure that safety and success in the application of all technologies is achieved. Under this note, human beings have a duty to be flexible, knowledgeable, dedicated and efficient to their tasks while executing sober judgments (Wells, Rodrigues, 2003). All technologies need not be abused but should be used in the right way in order to harvest the best out of it. This perspective about the potential of automation processes and machines as well as robots promise a great future. Concerning aviation industry, the lives of humans should never be compromised over cheap ambitions. Although it sounds quite easier and sweet music to the ears, the art of automating aviation and making a computer sit in the position of a human pilot would be the beginning of putting humans in dangerous and merciless situation.
The observation that aircraft accidents increase even after applying sophisticated technologies is possible because of human factors. The human factors include the abilities to effectively use the available technologies in problem solving. In order to enhance human factors, it is important for constant training on the emerging technology and at the same time, flexibility is a requirement for easy adoption of novel tools in aviation. Maintaining the old stand will not make any step ahead but rather holdback development in the field of aviation which contributes greatly to the global economic growth. Perhaps to be on the safer side is to embrace the thinking of Albert Einstein that when the two entities, a computer and a human come together, they make a super combination giving pretty results. Then this point implies that the two have to be in the same aircraft to give goods results which is not the aim of man. Man wants to relax and have good time as automates all the processes. He wants to be a lazy being, sitting in the house as business continues.
The understanding of this controversy will enable the appreciation of the main differences that exist between machines and humans. These differences will shed light on the reason why the aspect of automation is highly stressed on the improvement of safety. To some part, the examination of these differences will provide an insight on why some people claim that automation poses negative effects on the safety of the air travelers and the crew. A fully human-controlled aircraft B leaves and takes to air at the same time with all the controls with it. Assuming the passengers are in both the aircrafts A and B, it is expected that the passengers will express varying degree of safety concern (Wells, Rodrigues, 2003). Assuming that the design of the aircrafts is similar in the two aircrafts and that all conditions are constant, it will not miss a point of doubt for the air passengers to express some more fear in aircraft A that is manned by a computer in the remote location.
Man has evolved over along period and has become adapted to conditions that present before him. He is therefore complex and has the capacity to analyze and synthesize ideas and come up with solutions to complex problems. Man has been known as a perfect decision maker surpassing even the smartest machines. For machines, a lot of programming is a prerequisite to their function and once the code is fed, the withdrawal of the command becomes almost impossible (Soekkha, 1997). Therefore, man scores higher than machines in process making processes. To make a clear comparison between the machines and humans, it is relevant to look into their abilities to perform tasks. However, this does not act as real measure on how safe the air passengers and the crew will be on an aircraft. Taking this scenario, an aircraft, call it aircraft A, controlled by a remote computer pilot and aircraft B, being manned by a human pilot, will give a true picture of what aviation safety will be when automation is left to control the aircrafts. Aircraft A, which is controlled by a machine, leaves or takes off with a single command from a computer on land. It is worthwhile to appreciate that the aircraft has no ability to move unless a human supplies that command.
The super memory in man perhaps makes him be smarter than all machines. Compared to computers, the memory of man is never filled up there is always room to contain critical data. Man is able to remember sensations, feelings, experiences and other sensitive procedures that he has ever learnt. His ability to store and execute critical information may not be compared with machines. Equally, man has a super memory to build his intuitions, his experience and his discernments in life. Humans have the ability of adjusting to the conditions that may come and that are purely unexpected. When these conditions arise, the human pilot will try and adjust his abilities for the safety of the passengers and himself (Funk, Lyall, 2003). What about the computer pilot Assuming that all commands are fed to the system and the entire journey, from taking off to the landing is fully programmed, the aircraft A will be successful to land with al set conditions are constant.
The computer pilot will not have options of adjusting incase something wrong happens.
This makes people to think that automation is taking human being a step further in a world of insecurity as man is able to take actions very fast than machines and this is called airmanship in aviation.
Some opponents of automation have suggested that man has a special instinct which enables him to perform tasks in a natural way. It is suggested that a newly born baby thrown into a swimming pool will be able to swim due to special instincts that exist naturally in humans. While comparing the machines, opponents of automation have insisted that there is a lot of artificiality in the manner machines operate and because of this aspect, automation in aviation is close to a dangerous venture to both the crew and passengers. The ability of humans to adapt to all sorts of environments may not compare to any machine on earth (Mosier, n.d). The force of circumstances of life and the constant exposure of human beings into problematic environment provides a lesson which humans learn easily but machines are not able to benefit from this crucial aspect. Once there is a problem, humans can devise mechanisms to counter the problem the next time it appears. Machines will not have this lesson and will not recall of any circumstance. This suggests that humans are safer pilots without the need of automation of the aviation control.
There is a potential problem in the automated systems and this difficulty emanates from the manner in which machines and onboard computers may be able to compensate for abnormal events that in most times is totally unknown to the crew. To a majority of people, the automatic compensation for abnormal events may sound very appealing. However, there is always a border line to the capacity of the systems to compensate for the abnormal events. When the automation is compensating for some event or condition that is worsening without the knowledge of the crew, it can lead to a situation where it may be too late for the crew to override the system and further prevent a catastrophe (Wells, Rodrigues, 2003). This is a special illustration of how automation can pose safety risks. Even if machines should be appreciated about their capacity to perform operations fast, there is no machine that can compare with human brain. With the ability of humans to remember past events and keep as much commands or instructions as they are available, humans make the best pilot even in the modern time and the future. May times machines break causing the loss of information and the function of the collapsed system is no more. Machines are very uncertain one is never sure when they are going to embarrass.
Automation processes are constantly susceptible to errors. For instance, the digital navigation equipments are often exposed to keyboard entry errors or errors caused by fingers. The keyboard errors in most cases go unnoticed by the crew and this can cause great dangers and risks to the safety of the crew and the air travelers in general. Keyboard errors have happened in history with the best example being the case where KAL 007 flew off the course due to a mere keyboard error. Another great disadvantage of automation is that automatic devices are always installed one at a time without considering the overall pilot-cockpit system.
The automation processes may be encouraged in industries where monotonous processes are done by machines. In offices, accounting procedures may involve monotonous entries of records and carrying out some huge calculations which take a lot of time (Graeber, n.d). Software for making these processes easier and faster like never before have been developed and man can work with significant ease. Furthermore, automation and the use of robots have been used in areas where they truly deserve to be used. In chemical industries, robots can be used in handling highly toxic chemicals which may not be advisable or humans to handle. The same is true during an incident of fire rescue. Robots made of fireproof materials can get into the hot fire and save the lives of people who may be stuck in the building that has caught fire.
The aspect of uncertainty raises safety issues when trying to automate the whole process of aviation. At one time in his life, Albert Einstein, a great scientist known of his most famous theory of relativity once said that computers are extraordinarily fast, precise and stupid. Referring to human beings, Einstein made an observation that humans are incredibly slow, imprecise but very brilliant. However, the combination of the two, humans and computers, make a powerful amalgamation beyond human imagination. Basically, it may seem to be a prudent approach to make things easier by turning to the automation of procedures. This then calls for the embracement of and turning to automation since humans surely need automation to make the performance of tasks easer and faster. It is apparent that the use of automation procedures will definitely increase in the future. The human role in an increasingly automated environment also needs to be studied and the principles established for the setting of standards governing automation procedures (Graeber, n.d). This is important since automation keeps on playing a significant role in the modern society.
The turning to automation procedure in aviation exploits major weaknesses of humans in the manner man performs his tasks. Man is generally believed to be slow in action which makes him to be replaced by machines which act in real-time. Once a command is issued to a machine, the action is executed very fast to cause an effect. Inaccuracy is another drawback that befalls humans. While machines are fast and accurate in carrying out operations, humans may be annoyingly inaccurate, a problem that cannot be compensated for and never tolerable in aviation. Mistakes in aviation mean endangering human life. It is like a doctor making mistakes during critical operation. The patents life will be compromised.
While machines can perform repetitive tasks, human beings are easily bored and become disoriented when tasks are done again and again. The ability of performing one task over and over can be monotonous to human beings but machines can perfectly repeat commands a million times. This is required in aviation. Machines are perfect in computational speed than humans. In a microsecond, machines can handle millions of mathematical problems which are impossible for humans (Funk, Lyall, 2003). The last weakness of humans is that man is very unpredictable and forgetful. The memory of computers makes it possible to easily retrieve information regardless to the situation. Human beings may be affected by a number of factors which will negatively impact information retrieval. Machines therefore may have a greater chance for overtaking the aviation industry.
A number of airplane accidents have often been caused human errors and not as it was earlier assumed to be caused by mechanical failures. Despite the gain in technology, the importance of human beings still remains to be important in the field of aviation. Man has to ensure that safety and success in the application of all technologies is achieved. Under this note, human beings have a duty to be flexible, knowledgeable, dedicated and efficient to their tasks while executing sober judgments (Wells, Rodrigues, 2003). All technologies need not be abused but should be used in the right way in order to harvest the best out of it. This perspective about the potential of automation processes and machines as well as robots promise a great future. Concerning aviation industry, the lives of humans should never be compromised over cheap ambitions. Although it sounds quite easier and sweet music to the ears, the art of automating aviation and making a computer sit in the position of a human pilot would be the beginning of putting humans in dangerous and merciless situation.
The observation that aircraft accidents increase even after applying sophisticated technologies is possible because of human factors. The human factors include the abilities to effectively use the available technologies in problem solving. In order to enhance human factors, it is important for constant training on the emerging technology and at the same time, flexibility is a requirement for easy adoption of novel tools in aviation. Maintaining the old stand will not make any step ahead but rather holdback development in the field of aviation which contributes greatly to the global economic growth. Perhaps to be on the safer side is to embrace the thinking of Albert Einstein that when the two entities, a computer and a human come together, they make a super combination giving pretty results. Then this point implies that the two have to be in the same aircraft to give goods results which is not the aim of man. Man wants to relax and have good time as automates all the processes. He wants to be a lazy being, sitting in the house as business continues.
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