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A comment on Post-Mortem for Google Compute Engine’s Global Outage on April 11. Parent comment

Re:Post-Mortem for Google Compute Engine’s Global Outage on ... by nothrabannosir on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @06:35PM (#11492899)
> Most people have a greater fear of flying than driving by car although statistically you're far more at risk in a car. One cause of that fear of flying is loss of control; you have to accept placing your life in someone else's hands.

Really? That sounds counter intuitive. You'd think the reason people are afraid of flying is, because, you know, it's flying. Thirty thousand feet between you and the cold, hard ground. That's a long fall of agony to utmost certain death, and some magic turbo voodoo keeping you from it.

Would people with fear of flying really rather be the pilot?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Post-Mortem for Google Compute Engine’s Global Outage on ... by __jal on Wednesday April 13, 2016 @07:06PM (#11493092)
Can't find it with a quick google now, but there was a study on this. Giving people fake controls, even when they knew they were fake, reduced anxiety.

Give ambulatory meat some onboard decision-making ability, and it will want to use it.

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Re:Post-Mortem for Google Compute Engine’s Global Outage on ... by nothrabannosir on Thursday April 14, 2016 @04:29AM (#11495079)
That's incredible! I would never have guessed. I stand corrected, thank you.
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Re:Post-Mortem for Google Compute Engine’s Global Outage on ... by harryf on Thursday April 14, 2016 @04:03PM (#11499896)
If you want to see the problem practice, here's someone's mother trying out the Tesla self-drive... http://mirror.ninja/sniz
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Re:Post-Mortem for Google Compute Engine’s Global Outage on ... by capttombunnlcsw on Thursday April 14, 2016 @04:03PM (#11499892)
Maybe not the pilot, but simply being in the cockpit is usually enough to control the fear. Why? First, you can see what is going on, whereas in the cabin you can imagine what might be going on, and think the worst. Second, you can see the pilot is calm. You could watch the flight attendants when in the cabin but that may not be convincing. Third, if you hear or feel something unusual, you can simply ask the captain.

But, since flying in the cockpit isn't available, then what? Get a copy of "SOAR: The Breakthrough Treatment for Fear of Flying" (Amazon editors' 2014 favorite book).

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