In tribes and ancient villages, the leaders were the elders, those who had been everywhere and seen it before.
Now there is something new under the sun almost every second. Many see age as a liability, but is it? There are many positions in life that require split second decision making sometimes within narrow parameters, like professional sports. It takes extremely rapid decision making to hit a spitball between the stitches (Ted Williams) but the range of decisions is narrowed to hitting the ball or not. The hitter could do something else, like hit the umpire. That’s not a viable option.
Peace officers often have to make a split-second decision, to shoot or not to shoot, but their range of options is narrowed. Shoot who? With what — pistol, rifle, taser? Will one shot be enough? What about bystanders who could be hit? Fighter pilots face a similar range of complex split-second decisions but each of those split seconds is a larger portion of a full second. The baseball is spinning at several hundred RPM and the sweet spot is there for a thousandth of a second. Competitive western action shooters can draw, aim and fire accurately in about 2 tenths of a second. The ball would already be in the catcher’s mitt.
Missile or gun. The fighter plane now has a supercomputer built in to give the pilot details about many targets, but at Mach 3 (2 miles per second) there is not much time to decide. Recently an Israeli pilot collided with a drone he just shot. Enveloped in fuel he had to decide whether to eject or keep flying. He had about a second to decide. He successfully landed an F15 with only one wing. Ejection would mean the total loss of a $90 million aircraft and collateral damage on the ground. Suppose it hit a school or hospital.
Commercial airline pilots have some similar decisions, like what to do when a door plug blows out or both engines quit. When one person is in complete control, we don’t want any risk that he might die, so there is a co-pilot and an age limit. Locomotives have a dead-man brake that stops the train if the engineer is unconscious.
As drivers we have to make similar decisions, but the available reaction time is usually more generous. In analyzing traffic collisions, we usually allow about 3 seconds for the driver’s perception and reaction time. Half of that is perception — oh no! — and half for reaction, to decide what to do and execute. A weak stimulus can lengthen the perception phase. Some drivers are faster and some slower. The yellow traffic signal is adjusted to give about 5 seconds depending on physics, situation, experience and politics. That decision is made by traffic engineers after consideration and analysis that might take weeks.
Military commanders make decisions about unexpected situations that might take minutes or hours to describe, then make a reaction plan based on a vast array of options. It took months to plan for D-Day.
Legislatures on the other hand can take literally all the time in the world to make a decision. The have been debating some issues longer that I have been alive and I’m close enough in age to Biden to understand that time period. The only quick decision I have heard of was the decision to retaliate for Pearl Harbor one day, but many anticipated such an attack, they just did not know when or where it might come.
We had to fight the biggest war in history, at multiple fronts on three continents and two oceans. Our president was confined to a wheelchair. Did his physical condition matter? Not really. The president’s job, then as now, was to make strategic decisions with a staff of expert advisers. His most important job is appointing the best people for those positions with the advice, often the hindrance, of the Senate. Now we have Sens. Grassley, Sanders and McConnell, plus 10 Representatives, older than the president, saying he is too old.
We’re not asking the president to hit a spitball or even fly a jet, just calmly make decisions with the aid of his much younger staff.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer, now safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for West Hawaii Today. Send feedback to obenskik@gmail.com
