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Richard T. All of what you say is true. However, if a computer controlled traffic light screws up you miss your turn to go through the intersection or your turn for the turn signal. I'm sure you are familiar with this experience. If you are in an airliner that has computer flight controls your are dealing with multiple redundant systems, three is the minimum I'm aware of. When it comes to weapon systems, take my word for it, the redundancy level is high enough to ensure that a system failure will not take down the system, I'm sure we all would want it that way. When I look at a life support system that apparently will have only one processor with no back up then I become concerned because software always finds a way to occasionally go astray, which in this situation could be fatal. As I said yesterday these new systems are in "development" and one should certainly take that into consideration when buying in on this technology. In the aviation world there is a well worn saying that applies here and has a certain amount of truth to it. "There are old pilots, there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots." Substitute diver for pilot and you have it. Cecil C. ---------- From: daemon To: RODNEY NAIRNE Cc: Tony Davis; techdiver Subject: Re: Rebreather experience Date: Thursday, August 03, 1995 8:33AM Rodney Nairne posted: > > >Richard, as I am sure you know, fully closed circuit rebreathers are >electronically controlled. The oceanic unit is also computer controlled. Now >all <<real>> tech divers know how well dive computers work on deep dives, (yeah >right) the diff is now your life support is reliant on the operation of the >computer. (remember what happened to your Bridge at 99mtrs? A pico at 60 mtrs? >) I don't think Oceanic dive computers are highly regarded among tech divers. >Why should the breather computer be any different? Is a useless computer made >anymore reliable by having triple redundancy? > >I too saw the Oceanic breather in Sydney, and attended the seminar. I have >never seen as much misinformation in 30 minutes. No one else at that seminar >seemed to notice. Therein lies the problem: salesmen and tech instructors >thinking they know it all, and Joe Diver beleiving what the experts have to >say. I like some of these guys, but have never heard them say "I don't know". > Whoaa.....Rodney....flames down matey...... I am happy that "real" tech divers know all that.......Me? .. I must have missed the cutoff.. Agreed, equipment usually does fail if pushed beyond the specs (Bridge at 99mtrs). The solution is to know those limits, know what will happen if they are reached & know what to do to resolve it. You can easily dive a 50m air deco dive with a Seiko bottom timer and manual tables, but you would be less guranteed of success if you wanted to do a 75m mix dive with a Pico & USN manual in your pocket. As for the "now your life support is reliant on the operation of the computer..."...... Every day your life is in the control of a computer. Hope in a car, the traffic lights are computer controlled. Take a train, train movements are computer controlled. Take a lift, floor access is computr controlled........take a plane, catch a bus, have an operation...."skeit", we trust computers with the world's missle launch systems. The reason that they work the way they are intended is that they operate under specificied conditions & THERE IS USUALLY MANUAL OVERIDE. I would rue the day that diving equioment was deemed "too elctronic"..next it would be "too mechanical".....next we would all be breathing from inverted buckets with hoses inserted! If we are to ever accept "the brave new world" we are building then we need to accept that computers control MOST thing (I am still glad to say not EVERYTHING!!!!) and (to revist the postings on privacy) have access to MOST information more readily than people do. Give me a psuedo bio-mechanic organism any day....and that is what a diver using a rebreather is....a biological that has merged (for the duration of the dive) with an artificial (read man made) lung system. I know I want a computer system to feed me information that I make decisions on..... IMNSHO (for those that do not know me....my opinions are NOT SO humble!) in the end each of us must accept our own risk level; I deem mine safer if I can have all the user information I can! I either buy or hire a car to drive on a trip....I am more interested in the trip itself & getting there than building the car myself. As for point 2, being the OCEANIC presentation....since I know the person you are talking about quite well (and he is on this list) I will leave it up to them to pass comment.....but I would recommend you don't visit Sorrento or Melbourne on your dive trip to the Mount next week!!!! Safe diving dude....... Regards Richard T ---------------------------- Diver: Do Not Bend ---------------------------- -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@terra.net'. Send subscription/archive requests to `techdiver-request@terra.net'.
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