Episode 23: Challenges for Humans in the Loop

Challenges for Humans in the Loop

Guest: Professor David Mindell of MIT

Welcome to the second of two episodes with MIT Professor David Mindell.  In these conversations we are exploring the detailed realities of "human in the loop" systems.  In the first session we learned about the Apollo Program's lunar landing control system.  In this episode we are going to explore an important contemporary human plus computer control system failures involving a ship of the US Navy.

The first accident was a collision in the Singapore Strait in the pre-dawn darkness of August 21, 2017.  The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, determined that the causes of the collision between the destroyer John S McCain and the tanker Alnic MC included a lack of effective operational oversight, insufficient training, and inadequate bridge operating procedures.  Also contributing to the accident were the John S McCain bridge team’s loss of situational awareness and failure to follow loss of steering emergency procedures.  This loss of awareness goes by the name Mode Confusion.

Recorded: 2025-02-10