a great read.... It brings forth what some of us "cavemen" (a.k.a.: old) divers complain that we see in how this wonder device has replaced knowledge.....
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Great post, thanks Gary! While I think and dive very similarly to you, I'll be sure to steal some of your points and your humorous way of getting them across when I teach. =) A colleague of mine suffers from magic bracelet syndrome despite being an instructor. I'll point him this way, and see if I can turn the tables on him. (pun very much intended)
Wow, you could replace the word computer with table in this article and it would still mostly be right minus the part about understanding what your computer tells you. I don't know any diver recreational or technical that knows what is going on with their NDL's, or decompression requierments. They only know what a mathematical model tells them, How it is displayed either a computer or a table or an equation it is all the same. It is a model based on the performance of a monitored diver sometime in the past then backed off a bit for safety, then backed off some more by the recommendations of instructors, then everyone pats themselves on the back when they memorize the equation or the table.
Instead of making these models the end all be all, maybe future computers can take the individual divers physical make up, plus the environment and build a more accurate model on the fly.
I do agree with way too many divers do not understand what their computer tells them, but I see no difference to that and not remembering how to use the tables, or the equations.