About this video
The passage observes that automated flight technology can guide an aircraft reliably, yet it is not a perfect safeguard against human error. The question asks which answer choice best explains this. The video works through the options, rules out claims about malfunctions and aircraft size, and settles on the idea that automated flight invariably executes the commands humans give it.
You'll be able to
- identify the claim a reasoning question is asking me to explain.
- rule out answer choices that do not address the specific issue.
- state an argument that links a premise to its conclusion.
Key words
- Safeguard
- A mechanism meant to prevent or catch errors, here referring to automated flight technology.
- Human error
- A mistake caused by the people operating the system, which the passage is concerned with.
- Malfunction
- A failure of the automated system itself, distinct from errors that come from human commands.
- Explain a paradox
- Choose the answer that makes an apparent contradiction make sense.
Transcript
- [Instructor] Automated flight technology can guide an aircraft very reliably, from navigation to landing. Yet this technology, even when functioning correctly, is not a perfect safeguard against human error. Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain the situation described above?
And the situation is, hey look, this automated flight technology, it can guide an aircraft very reliably, navigation to landing, yet it cannot, even when functioning correctly, it is not a perfect safeguard against human error. Alright, so which one of these most helps explain the situation?
Automated flight technology does not always function correctly. No, that would explain why there's errors, why automated flight technology doesn't always guide an aircraft, but it doesn't explain anything about why it's not a perfect safeguard against human error.
Remember, human error is what we seem to be worried about. So we don't wanna, we're not concerned with that, at least in this state of affairs right over here. B, smaller aircraft do not always have their automated flight technology updated regularly. Once again, now it's talking about smaller aircraft, while up here we're talking about automated flight technology generally, and then it's talking about not having the flight technology updated regularly, but this doesn't touch on why there still will be some human error, why this, it's not a perfect safeguard against human error.
If a plane's automated flight technology malfunctions, crew members have to operate the plane manually. Well this actually reverses it, this is actually saying how humans can help errors with the automated flight technology. It's not talking about why automated flight technology is not a perfect safeguard against human error.
It's not talking about human error right here. D, some airplane crashes are due neither to human error nor to malfunctions of automated flight, or malfunction of automated flight technology. Well this, once again, does that talk about this issue of safeguards against human errors?
They're talking about, there's some crashes that are not due to the technology or the humans. So this doesn't touch there, I hope E is the answer, 'cause I ruled out the first four. Alright, automated flight technology invariably executes exactly the commands that humans give it.
It's a good thing that this does indeed look like the answer, because it's saying, look, at the end of the day, automated flight technology, they're servants to the commands of the humans. And so if the humans make a human error, well then it's still not gonna, it's not gonna be a safeguard against that.
So I like that, and you can even add this to the paragraph above, and actually the paragraph makes a little bit more complete sense, you get a better sense of why we're in this state of affairs. If I were to say, automated flight technology can guide an aircraft very reliably, from navigation to landing.
However, automated flight technology invariably executes exactly the commands that humans give it, therefore this technology, even when functioning correctly, is not a perfect safeguard against human error. That sounds good, it's actually a more fleshed out argument or not even an argument, a more fleshed out way of explaining why we're in the situation, where automated flight technology does not eliminate the situation, is not a safeguard against human error.
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