of both in the argument, technology that is not built to a standard which allows for easy human interface and the training and competency standards of those using it. An over reliance on technology by inexperienced poorly trained officers, who, when faced with confusing or conflicting information do not have the ability to respond and question what they are faced with, or have the ability to use the basic seafaring skills of practical seamanship, simply looking out the bridge window to have the special awareness necessary to safely navigate the ship without causing harm to themselves, others, or the environment.
Each new situation or task onboard ship needs to be assessed individually and resolved by the application of a sophisticated set of well-developed knowledge, skills and accepted practices by a professional mariner.
Professionalism has been defined as: a self-disciplined group of individuals, who hold themselves out to the public, as possessing a special skill derived from training or education, and who are prepared to exercise that skill primarily in the interest of others.
Professionalism is a requirement for resolving the complex and unpredictable problems faced by seafarers onboard ship. There is no single recipe for getting a ship, her cargo and crew from A to B. These skills need to be developed through appropriate education and guidance from experienced practitioners
So, where do we go from here?
There are three possible scenarios: • Keep STCW review and modify.
• Scrap it, keep the model and rewrite in more modern terms incorporating new technology and training methods.
• Scrap it altogether and look at a completely new model of training, one that incorporates all the basic seamanship elements necessary and includes regular high-level training for assessment and evaluation in a real time simulated environment. (like aircraft simulators) and increase the use of Virtual Reality in maritime education training and operations.
But and it is a big BUT, are we too late? Have the movements to automate shipping overtaken us to the extent that we are fighting a losing battle? There is a body of opinion that tells us technology has already surpassed what we believed would be the future and for many it is here now.
Maybe now is the time, and, given the speed of development over the last few years - possibly our last chance to start discussing the moral, ethical and legal framework required to steer the evolution of digital life and to bridge the gap between what technology can do and what it might do - if we let it.
If we, as an industry, wish to retain mastery of the seas and create a place where our skills, knowledge and livelihoods mean something, then we need to be mindful of what is going on in the exponentially developing world of automation and human augmentation. We must begin preparing for, and accept the burden of, a new kind of maritime stewardship and exercise more prescient foresights. The
46 | The Report • March 2020 • Issue 91
onus is upon us to become active in creating and implementing the ground rules for what goes on out of sight of land - in the watery wilderness that is the domain of we mariners and our forebears. We need to be decisive yet remain open-minded and flexible enough not to inhibit real progress.
• Daunting? Yes! • Impossible? No! • Alternatives? Regrettably none.
Whilst the scenario may sound dramatic and somewhat far- fetched, it is, in fact, barely a few years away and it is rapidly coming upon us. The technologies described, or alluded to, already exist. They are real and they are already being exploited – this is simply a statement of fact.
On current trend, if we do nothing to regulate or retain at least some legislative and human control of our industry and working environment, the seas risk becoming the domain of manipulated beings that service an autonomous shipping industry that could, in the space of barely a generation, be lost to most of humankind.
Our starting point must be to recognise what is going on and speak out. We have a moral, ethical and human obligation to make others aware of the risks that developing, then implementing, these unregulated technologies poses to our industry in the first place, then to other industries and, eventually, to all of mankind.
If what is here alluded to becomes the eventual outcome from this rapidly increasing technological drive, history may judge that our generation and those that we are currently training, were guilty of the greatest ever crime against humanity.
To do nothing, is to become redundant!
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