Monday, August 28, 2017
Se-lu 8, T-bone edition
An article in Arse Technica is UNIQUE among all Arse Technica articles. It doesn't blame Global Warming for a problem and it doesn't blame Trump for a problem. It blames plain old information overload.
Each of the collisions this year happened under widely different circumstances, though they have one major thing in common: all of them (the Russian collision included) happened in some of the most congested waters in the world. And unlike naval ships, many of the other vessels traveling through those waters have minimal bridge crews, limited communications, and a lot less maneuverability. Even when merchant ships are in the wrong, navigationally speaking, Navy ships generally are in a better position to maneuver out of the way and can't depend on the other ships to follow the rules of the road. Watch standers aboard modern warships may have more technology to help them, but they still face a daunting task when they enter high-traffic areas as treacherous as the Strait of Gibraltar—or the Strait of Malacca, the approaches to the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and the approaches to Tokyo Bay. In each, hundreds of other vessels may be visible to the naked eye or on the radar scope. The resulting sea of data points can overwhelm even an experienced bridge crew regardless of how good their technology is.Okay. What's the correct response? LOOSEN YOURSELF. Break out of the Parkinsonian pattern of CLAMP CLAMP CLAMP MORE MORE MORE. Parkinson says: Must have MORE technology and MORE ships and MORE action to resolve the problem of TOO MANY ships and TOO MUCH action. STOP AND THINK. If we're too crowded to avoid monthly collisions, we're ALSO too crowded to do anything meaningful in wartime. If we decide to attack at point B, we can't get from point A to point B without crashing first. Therefore our presence is TOTALLY FUTILE from a logistical viewpoint, even without asking the vastly more important question of overall purpose and strategy. LOOSEN YOURSELF. KNOW WHEN TO FUCKING QUIT.
Labels: se-lu
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