BobZ

Girlfriend

notEnuf

There will be growing pains and an acceptable level of loss. Mass casualty incidents will continue to happen from train crashes to Covid-19. You can't prevent every injury or death. There will be a point where statistically we get to diminishing returns. Unless you lock everyone in their homes and wrap them in bubble wrap you just can't prevent more deaths or further mitigate risk without limiting progress. I see how easily we adopted the smart phone (spy/monitoring device) because of its convenience and I think there really is no risk or fear that can't be marketed into submission. Even the railroads once embodied the evil of modernization, now they are the transportation darling for their fuel efficiency.

Gunfighter

Automation doesn't have to be perfect, just better than humans. We've lost some planes because of intentional acts by pilots. Germanwings and Malaysia come to mind. 9/11 was accomplished by killing the pilots and replacing them. Human error has been identified as causal in numerous other incidents. As much as we like to point out the positives of having 2 or more qualified pilots in the cockpit, there are also potential downsides.

It will likely be a gradual transition from reduced augmentation on long haul down to single pilot ops and finally no pilot ops. Advancements in AI and datalink capability are moving us closer to autonomous air travel. Autoland capabilities have been around for decades. Auto-taxi is the job killer. Once they figure out how to clear the runway after landing you can start your end of career timer.

BobZ

I suppose when AI has taken over human employment we will have to develop some kind of psuedo-job lottery

That way we humans can stay home and still get paid for the jobs we are no longer needed to do.

badflaps

I think you just described Delta reserve.

notEnuf

Now, yes.
Previously, Delta wide-body reserve.

This time last year narrow-body reserve couldn't come up for air.