Friday, January 4, 2013
New Information Emerges About Air France Flight 447
More than two years after the Airbus 330 crashed, new information has emerged thanks to locating and recovering the "black box" flight data recorder. In short, human error caused the crash of AF 447. But the human error was in the face of -- and in some cases, enhanced by -- advanced autopilot functions that the human pilots were relying upon. Because they trusted the Airbus to "self-correct", the inexperienced pilots continued to fly the plane in the face of stall alarms. If they had been flying a much less sophisticated vehicle, it seems unlikely that they would not have taken corrective action and avoided the catastrophe. The Popular Mechanics article shows one of the problems that can emerge when "artificial intelligence" is relied upon in the face of other empirical data.
Popular Mechanics article
Obama Signs "Fiscal Cliff" Bill with Help of Robot
Having departed Washington shortly before midnight on January 1st to return to his family's vacation spot in Hawaii, President Obama nonetheless was able to sign the so-called "Fiscal Cliff" bill, thanks to a robotic autopen that has its roots in the Jeffersonian era. President George W. Bush's White House first asserted the legality of a President signing (of a law) via autopen, but did not use it; Obama became the first President to actually do so, first with the extension of the PATRIOT Act, and then again this week.
">National Journal article
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