Planes, cars with 'fly by wire' controls, etc, etc.......they all scare me to a degree.
The problem though is not so much the technology, as it is the 'hands' it's being put into, and the time spend maintaining it. Think about it, a plane is required to have certain checks, both electronic and mechanical, at set intervals to insure things are working properly. Too planes usually have redundant systems on critical functions. Cars and equipment don't typically have those things.
Heck, back up from the electronic side of things and think about something a bit simpler when it comes to 'new' car design. On the older vehicles using V belts you could lose your alternator belt and still drive until the battery died. If you lost the power steering belt you just drove manually until you could get to the next exit and find another. Same with the A/C belt. Now if you caught the lost belt in time it could be temporarily replaced with a piece of rope, twisted nylons, etc, etc as an emergency repair until you could get a new one. With the serpintene belts being used on newer vehicles, when it goes, EVERYTHING goes, and it has to be replaced with the identical belt if you plan to go anywhere. Then there is the whole case of having to engineer water pumps rotating in reverse for engines that origionally had V belts to be converted to serpintene drive, etc, etc, etc. In other words something simple and easy, like a V belt, was reingineered into something not so simple and easy. The result was nothing but alot more parts needing to be manufactured and kept on hand, and a consumer base that is now expected to actually maintain their vehicles and have belts changed before they break so they don't get left stranded.
The same holds true for all of the electronics. Properly maintained and used in the 'proper' places, everything has it's place. The problem is electronics are now being used in places that have always been problematic for them, and they have no business being used there....but still are in the name of 'comsumer demand'. Basically the average consumer has driving technology to the point that it is not longer as good for them as they had hoped it would be, and as the advertisers tell them it continues to be. So, they fuss, cuss, and then go right out and buy the latest and greatest electronic gadget for twice the price the same old, non-electronic item would be and the cycle continues.
Be it plane, car, or not being able to find anyone locally with a plain old spring type, non-electronic fish scale in the end, YES, the whole mentality scares me......
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Today's Featured Article - Fire in the Field A hay fire is no laughing matter-well, maybe one was! And a good life-lesson, too. Following World War II many farm boys returned home both older and wiser. One such man was my employer the summer I was sixteen. He was a farmer by birth and a farmer by choice, and like many returning soldiers, he was our silent hero: without medals or decorations, but with a certain ability to survive. It was on his farm that I learned to use the combination hand clutch and brake on a John D
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