CcrBoy:
"I like computers but not to bet my life on."
Lets hope you never need health care given all the computers used in that field. Or drive a modern car, or fly, or etc.. And I assume you only dive with analogue gauges.
You may not care for the complex nature of a CCR, but computer technology is not the problem.
I agree. I've read all the flame wars and stupid arguments on other sites, and I don't mean to start a fight here, but feel this is an important point that I haven't seen in all other postings.
An old navy diver / PADI instructor once told me that he has all his advanced classes calc. a dive on the surface, then takes 'em to 30' and has 'em recalc. What takes 2-3 min. on the surface takes 8-10 min. at depth. Nitrogen slows your thinking at all depths (thus the euphoria we all love), and no one can reliably predict narcosis.
Since a computer controller can be properly designed and rigorously tested by clear-thinking brains without any risk of nitrogen effects, I personally feel that I can trust a computer to make better decisions than I can my brain at depth.
Every day we trust our lives to computers that are far more complex than what is required to control a CCR. And many many many life support systems are computer controlled, and, again, far more complicated.
Notice I said properly designed, so please don't re-hash that stupid "take your TV underwater" quote.
I personally believe that if all RBs were controlled by properly designed computers, reducing the likelyhood of human error, there would be far fewer deaths on RBs.
But, I'll admit to being partial, since I'm a computer / embedded engineer by training, and work for a company that's been designing and fielding underwater electronic devices since the late '40s. I do not dive a RB yet, but have been researching them for about 5 years.
Having said that, please understand that I do believe that more training / respect would be required when diving a RB. A computer can't make you change your adsorbent. A death I recently read about involved a very experienced RB diver who's computer was beeping warning messages before the dive, and he whacked it 'til it stopped, then jumped in the water. No technology will prevent a sufficiently determined suicide.