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Eva Seifert's avatar

I've been watching "Air Disasters" on Smithsonian Channel - as if I needed another reason not to fly! What surprises me is how many accidents are a result of computer/technical errors - mechanical glitches or plain old computer glitches - that the humans either didn't anticipate or can't resolve because of the complexity of the machines. In other words, screw self-driving cars/planes, etc. They actually need the humans, faulty as we are, to operate them.

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LeftCoastReader's avatar

Except that there's always room for human error. That computer "glitch" might be made by a programmer who hadn't had his morning coffee. But very often, it is a cascade of human error that brings a plane down. For your reading pleasure, many such stories can be found here:

https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/

I'll take the train. :)

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Eva Seifert's avatar

One of the biggest mistakes the US made was dumping a great passenger RR system for cars. I love watching "Mighty Trains" on Smithsonian Channel. Even today, trains provide substantial percentages of moving goods in the US.

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