The Social Network

If anybody has seen the movie The Social Network, they would know the intricacies (or lack thereof) behind a company such as Facebook. Indeed the aviation industry works in similarly. In the movie, individuals sought to be connected via Facebook because it was popular. The same can be said for the aviation industry in the 1960s. It was considered 'cool' to be a pilot, and this holds true even to this day. Ever since the movie Top Gun came out, more and more people look at aviation and consider it to be popular and interesting.

The Matrix and the Future of Aviation

It's no secret that companies have been experimenting with AIs (artificial intelligence) controlling airplanes, and the movie The Matrix only emphasizes what can possibly happen. If, theoretically, The Matrix was created by humans with a set a given laws: how can The Matrix evolve to what was seen in the movie? All fantasies and hypotheticals aside, giving direct and full control of something to a machine can have consequences. As seen in the video embedded, there can be costly consequences for having a machine control everything in aviation. Although the motives for designing such a device are to negate human error: there still poses a much greater risk if the machine malfunctions when the plane is full of people.

In addition, it begs the question as to what is the future of autopilot. Autopilot is nothing more than a computer program that will control the aircraft's heading, pitch, altitude, and speed based on the pilot's settings. If this program malfunctions, what are the consequences? Although the consequences in this day and age wouldn't be alarming, imagine what would happen when the autopilot system began to actually control the plane fully and not just to hold a heading.

Barlow and Aviation

It might be hard to imagine, but aviation can be related to Barlow's ideas. Barlow's ideas mostly stem toward blogging, yet there are subtle similarities that can be paralleled to the aviation industry. For example, the primary point that can be paralleled to aviation would be that of intertextuality.

Intertextuality, by definition, means that authors talk to one another for the editing of their works. Indeed this can be applied to aviation when pilots talk to each other about their technique. The ultimate textbook example of this would be Operation: Red Flag, held every year.

 

Operation: Red Flag allows for pilots and grounds crews from all over the world to critique their work during a simulated war-time scenario. This opportunity is unique due to the fact that it allows for pilots and ground crews to obtain valuable training experience in a simulated environment close to the real thing.

Technology and Aviation

A frequent topic for discussion in class would be that of technology. Many would argue that aviation is lacking in technology when they observe a cockpit of some commercial, yet this isn't the case. Indeed some of the instruments in an MD-80 look out-dated, but they still preform their job.

Garmin, a leading company in aircraft instrumentation, has been making a new line of MFDs (Multi-Functional Displays) for aviation. As seen in the picture above, the new MFD glossy screens replace a lot of analog instrumentation with that of digital readouts. However, these displays aren't limited to military aviation. As seen in the PC-12 cockpit (below), these new displays are making their way into the civilian market.

The reason why I bring up technology in aviation is because technology has made great strides over the last decade. Furthermore, technology allows people to connect in new ways such as text messaging. It's interesting to note that the technological strides which connect people on the ground don't necessarily connect people in the air. What I mean by this is that ever since the dawn of aviation, pilots and ground crews established all the connection they would ever need to coordinate a safe takeoff, flight, and landing, and technological advances only make this process easier. I'd like to finish with an interesting video, which utilizes civilian technology with aviation: