Dumbing Down or I don't care how anything works

[Liquid_Charlie]

I was going to make this general and post in hot air section but I see it's still locked. So start with aviation and then drift

Being a "boomer", farm boy and worked after school in a Supertest gas station Supertest????and learned to fly in a nordo taildragger the dumbing down of aviation and society (at least in G7 type countries) is rampant everywhere. Society is turning into "users" only with no understanding or caring how anything really works.

Computers have fallen into the mist of PFM, even though they control most of our lives. It's now all about touching screens and "I have an app for that." Jezzus we can't even communicate in full words. I even had difficulty transitioning from directories to folders and certainly from programs to apps, I like to have at least a basic understanding of how a device works, android 11 is driving me crazy trying to root my phone and I managed to brick it. Having said that I got it working again with a little command line and ADB but I don't do code. That does not mean you can't try and understand the systems a little.

The NG aircraft of today have almost eliminated drill items and the computer deals with a lot of issues. The skill is not so much in flying but managing to not it input garbage. Autopilots are even left engaged with engine inop. No wonder there are concerns of stick and rudder skill levels. Don't get me wrong, automation is a requirement to fly advanced aircraft. Could automation fly a fighter in a present day type dog fight. Then again, the aircraft is limited by human physiology.

Apple is proposing dramatic changes to their next phone centreing on protecting your personal data and threatens to remove google and several social media applications (apps -- haha) Really, my complaint about apple was their total control and how difficult it was to remove this from their phones. That's what steered me towards android.

If you have an android phone all that is proposed by apple has always been available on android devices. Interesting side note, if you use a third party browser or a VPN google will block ad links in google searches because they can't mine your data. DuckDuckGo should be the search engine of choice.

How many out there actually still own a desktop. I can't even think how a desktop can be replaced, even with a top end laptop and tablets are such a joke but still they have a use.

Things are dumbed down, we are changing into a society of tech users with very little understanding of how they work. The guys who love this are the scammers. I enjoy their calls and it provides entertainment during the "covid" days but they do manage to fool people. That amazes me because they are not particularly good at what they are trying to do. Just shows how people are dumbing down.





Steam vs digital

So is it just me or have is this dumbing down thing a real issue??

[David MacRay]

What bothers me is you can't get parts to fix a starter motor. I hear they make some of that stuff in China but do I want to bother trying to order it on a phone? Not really.

I want to go to the store where some old guy knows what I actually need instead of what Ithink I want. He will explain, "Don't forget this piece. And make sure you put it in after this but before that..."

Instead they sell you a full rebuild even if you just need a brush that broke.

Oh well... Progress.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Human nature is to take the easy road, aviation is no different. Why sweat working at keeping the ball in the middle when the airplane pretty much does it for me ?
Why have the mental math skills to plan your descent when the green banana tells you where you are going to make the next altitude. Why should I care about the mags, boost, tickle the primer dance, when I can just push the button marked “start” in big green letters ?

That being said I think there have always been lazy, unmotivated, just want to make the minimum standard pilots. The only difference was in the past they had fewer crutches.

I still see the range in new pilots, but I do see lots that truly want to be good pilots and are totally jazzed after a good lesson.

The almost universal trait in young pilots that disappoints is they have no mechanical skills. This manifests itself in not having any feel for machinery, no idea how to be nice to mechanical things. I suppose this is not surprising as nobody ever fixes anything anymore. My first car was a 71 VW beetle. You could fix almost anything on this car with 5 tools and a 70 page manual. Now I can fix many issues on my 2018 Sabaru with a laptop and don’t even need to open the hood.

When I was a kid there was shop classes, now kids don’t even get scissors because they could cut themselves. Bandages after shop class used to be a badge of honour.

Oh Oh I had better stop now, I am starting to sound like you guys

[David MacRay]

My son takes Shop Class. They have a pretty decent teacher too. Lucky I guess.

Outside of class time, he also learned how scissors can make a hole in your hand if you miss-use them. The worst part of that was some moron that claimed they are not allowed to clean the wound due to liability issues. Instead she told him to use a filthy paper towel to slow the bleeding. I was not happy. I would have lawyered up if that advice went bad.

Hire a nurse!

[digits]

For aviation, the problem is bigger than that. It's not just that a lot of people don't care, it's that the people who *do* care often can't access the information on how something works exatly, because the info is not available.

The fancier the training environment, the less information you get. The pilot in training gets a schematic that is so simplified it becomes useless. If you look at an electrical system diagram, and you can't figure out what happens when you press 2 buttons at the same time, it's not a good schematic.

If you only know that the computer does in "normal' cases, because the edge cases are not covered, it's useless. Doesn't mean you need to know all that stuff to be a good pilot, but I find it very freaky the information isn't even accessible if you do want to find out.

[David MacRay]

I don't know if this is part of the problem or a differen issue. Often the intent of the computer is to prevent pilots being able to make a mistake.

Great in theory until something weird happens and neither the computer or pilot can fix a problem the engineers didn't expect.

If a pilot never made mistakes in a simple plane they may not even recognize what's going on.

One example personally, I never had a plane porpoise until way after I was licensed. I knew that one from talking about it so much but I might still not fully understand what I did to get there. Maybe knowing a couple of ways to fix it is better. I'd prefer to avoid it..

[Slick Goodlin]

Human nature is neat because it hasn’t changed one bit in recorded history.


Using myself as an example (I’m the only person I truly know), I like to know how stuff works and see first principles as a good thing. I can drive stick, I can drive a weird system that predates stick, I can fly tailwheel, hand-prop, hand crank my truck, whatever. The thing is these are all designs that are meant to be very mechanical and usable. I used to fly a jet with a FADEC and while I get the principle of what it’s trying to do I’ll be damned if I know how it does it. Does this mean I should learn all about the programming that went into the system? How about the manufacture of the hardware too while I’m at it? I’m sure if we thought about it long enough we could come up with some rare cases where knowing those things would help, but will I realistically ever see any of those situations? Will anyone?

[David MacRay]

I figure if my children learn how to change a tire, catch fish, grow carrots and build a basic permanent shelter they can figure out other things better. I'm probably wrong.

Who wants to get some land in Louisiana and help teach a 14 year old how to build cabins?

[Big Pistons Forever]

Personally I put knowing the code in the same category as knowing the exact specifications for the metal in every piece of my airplane.

The challenge with the modern wizz bangery is to be able at a practical
level to have the ability decide whether what the box wants to do is what YOU want the airplane plane to do, and when there is a significant mis match have the confidence to go “click click”

Practical mental situational awareness is IMHO even more important with modern glass cockpits.

Speaking of glass, my first exposure to glass in the cockpit was working the CRT engine analyzer in the DC 6

[RBK]

I’m a younger boomer that grew up wanting to know how everything works, and fixed most things myself. Having said that, I have come around to appreciating technology and what it can offer. Some examples:
- when I was planning my panel, I wanted to go with steam gauges. However, because of available space I went with a digital engine monitor. I was worried I wouldn’t like it but honestly, within 1/2 hour of using it I was sold. I’ve since replaced the gyros with an EFIS and now have far more information available, as well as a backup for the mechanical airspeed and altimeter
- I replaced the one of the magnetos with an electronic ignition and see noticeably better fuel economy. I understand the basics of how it works, but in reality it is another’s black box that I wouldn’t be able to fix
- I initially scoffed at the idea of vehicle stability control being able to recover from a skid better than I could after years of experience driving in the snow. I’ve changed my mind after playing with it to see what it can do. I will agree it isn’t as much fun though.

Yes, it would be nice to know how everything works, but I don’t really miss wondering if my truck will start on a cold winter morning. Maybe I’ve been lucky, but most electronics have been more reliable for me than the older systems