Abstract
Successful air traffic control requires two things: the management of information and the management of consciousness. Both are important, but they are different. Automation can improve one or it can improve both. Human consciousness and human information-processing ability are limited, whereas, in practical terms, the span of attention of automation and its ability to process information is unlimited. Hence automation can greatly improve information flow to human awareness, but this can also overload it. On the other hand, if human consciousness is not part of the loop — i.e., in a completely automated system — it is quite possible for the machinery to process accurately a much larger volume of information. That is, as long as the program for the computer is correct, an important (and not necessarily correct) assumption.
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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Westrum, R. (1991). Automation, Information and Consciousness in Air Traffic Control. In: Wise, J.A., Hopkin, V.D., Smith, M.L. (eds) Automation and Systems Issues in Air Traffic Control. NATO ASI Series, vol 73. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76556-8_35
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76556-8_35
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