Over the past few weeks, as I’ve been going through The Brightest Void and adding those last details that really breathe life into a story, I’ve noticed something a little strange.
No, it’s not the vampires.
(Ok, maybe it’s partly the vampires.)
It’s the design of my starship.
Though it’s not always explicit in the text, I’ve always pictured Bayonet’s bridge as having numerous mechanical controls beside the sleek, flat control panels. Switches. Knobs. Levers. Buttons. Devices that require physical force to move. Mechanisms that feel different from the one beside it. You know. Things you see little of in contemporary science fiction.
Because touchscreens—see-through, naturally, because no one in the future seems to have poor eyesight—are sexy. They’re shiny, polished, streamlined, new, a technology that’s only recently come into our lives in the form of cell phones, GPS displays, and notebook computers. Is it any wonder they’re the darling of science fiction writers and artists everywhere?
Not really. The allure is there. There’s even one in my Jeep that allows me to access more of my car’s information than ever before, and they’re increasingly found in aircraft, even small general aviation planes. Manufacturer Garmin claims the systems are intuitive and “no more difficult to use in turbulence provided a stable anchor point for the hand is available,” and though I’d disagree as someone who routinely hits the wrong spot on my Jeep’s screen on a rough road, it’s clear touchscreens are here to stay—and if you believe recent pop culture, they’re going to be around for quite a while.
Warning: spoilers for the season finale of season 5 of The Expanse follow.
No, really.
Stop reading if you don’t want the season finale spoiled.
At the end of season 5, Camina Drummer’s ship is on the run from the Free Navy after being caught scavenging a Martian warship. They’re about the destroy their pursuer with their single remaining torpedo when a crewmember hits the wrong button on the display and, instead of launching the torpedo, sends a transmission that reveals their exact location. Chaos, of course, ensues, and I’m pretty sure every pilot who’s ever accidentally hit the wrong transponder button while reaching for their GPS broke into a cold sweat.
(You can read more examples from season 6 and the showrunners’ thoughts on touchscreens here, in a fantastic article on the topic.)
But The Expanse is fiction. In the real world, no one dies because of a touchscreen. Real-world consequences are limited to inadvertently blasting the music volume in your car or accidentally slamming your thumb on your transponder’s ident button and waking up air traffic control.
Or are they?
On August 21, 2017, US Navy destroyer John S. McCain (DDG-56) collided with the tanker Alnic MC, killing 10 John S. McCain sailors. The NTSB found the probable cause to be, “a lack of effective operational oversight of the destroyer by the US Navy, which resulted in insufficient training and inadequate bridge operating procedures. Contributing to the accident were the John S. McCain bridge team’s loss of situation awareness and failure to follow loss of steering emergency procedures, which included the requirement to inform nearby traffic of their perceived loss of steering. Also contributing to the accident was the operation of the steering system in backup manual mode, which allowed for an unintentional, unilateral transfer of steering control.”
To be absolutely clear, the probable cause of this accident was a leadership failure, and the ensuing courts-martial bear that out—but no accident happens in a vacuum. The NTSB goes on to list several safety issues identified during the investigation, including, “The design of the destroyer’s Integrated Bridge and Navigation System.” If you’re so inclined, you can read about the design on pages 13-15 of the accident report. I don’t think you’ll be surprised to learn it was a series of . . . touchscreens (photo on page 18 of the NTSB report).
It gets even more interesting from here, from a safety recommendation point of view. Two years after the John S. McCain accident—as well as a similar collision involving the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) just a few months before—the US Navy announced their intention to revert destroyers back to a mechanical helm control system after sailors categorically maintained the touchscreen IBNS were needlessly complex.
(It’s worth a short note here that the touchscreen design of the IBNS wasn’t requested by the Navy. Shipbuilders are given wide authority in design matters, and for an engineer without operations experience, touchscreens are an easy solution. We see this problem crop up in aviation every so often where the end user isn’t integrated into the design process, but that aspect of human factors is thankfully, I know you’re thinking, beyond the scope of this post.)
So, what’s the issue? Why do people struggle with touchscreens, despite their proliferation? Why, in some cases, do we vocally prefer manual controls?
Research, unfortunately, is scarce.
One study found lower accuracy among pilots using touchscreen displays compared to two more conventional systems, but lower accuracy alone doesn’t completely explain a preference outside of high-risk environments.
Muscle memory is another likely reason. In 2020, when I started up a plane for the first time in five years, my hand went instinctively to the side of my headset where the volume control sat. Three clicks on a dial I could immediately feel with my fingertips, and I was ready to go. With touchscreens, especially ones with no haptic feedback, the mind isn’t able to develop that kind of memory—to say nothing of the absolute inability to perform such a task without visual reference.
Fatigue? Possibly. Constant swiping and zooming can be physically draining compared to the small, precise movements of a mouse or trackball—especially when the movements are unnatural. I’ve always found it interesting that I’m one of the few Kindle Voyage users, but I prefer it because the navigation buttons allow me to turn pages without moving my finger, something not possible with the more popular Paperwhite. The cognitive challenges of navigating a complex system that isn’t always intuitive can further drain an operator.
The NTSB’s report on the John S. McCain collision provides another clue: “Mechanical throttles provide complementary information to an operator: direction, force, and the ability to confirm either visually or by touch whether the throttles are ganged and working in unison.” In other words, touchscreens make it more difficult to immediately and visually confirm a system’s status. Fine on your cell phone. Not so fine on a destroyer or 737—or a spacefaring cutter.
Whatever the reason, I have a gut a feeling that the sleek displays we’ve grown so used to in science fiction television and movies won’t be nearly as universal as we’ve been led to believe. I could be wrong. Perhaps our brains will undergo some sort of advancement large enough to handle the tsunami of information and allow us to disregard thousands of years of desire for the tactile. Maybe the sheer attractiveness of flat displays will win out. Those working in technology certainly think so.
But humans involved in complex processes where lives are at stake want to touch things—and probably will for a while yet.
- Eckstein, Megan. (2019, August 9). Navy Reverting DDGs Back to Physical Throttles, After Fleet Rejects Touchscreen Controls, from News: https://news.usni.org/2019/08/09/navy-reverting-ddgs-back-to-physical-throttles-after-fleet-rejects-touchscreen-controls
- Hollister, Sean. (2022, January 13). The Expanse Season 6 Makes Me Worry About the Future of Touchscreens, from The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/13/22879251/the-expanse-season-6-touchscreens-interview-james-sa-corey-ty-franck-daniel-abraham-naren-shankar
- National Transportation Safety Board. (2019, June 19). Collision between US Navy Destroyer John S McCain and Tanker Alnic MC Singapore Strait, 5 Miles Northeast of Horsburgh Lighthouse, from NTSB: https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/MAR1901.pdf
- Pierobon, Mario. (2019, July 22). Touchscreen Avionics: What are the Benefits & Challenges?, from AvBuyer: https://www.avbuyer.com/articles/avionics/touchscreen-avionics-what-are-the-benefits-challenges-112502
- Shamonsky, Dorothy. (2016, August 10). Want to Create Touchscreen Layouts that Feel Great? Embrace Human Movement Patterns, from ICS: https://www.ics.com/blog/want-create-touchscreen-layouts-feel-great-embrace-human-movement-patterns
- van Zon, Nout C. M., et al. (2019, August 13). Touchscreens for Aircraft Navigation Tasks: Comparing Accuracy and Throughput of Three Flight Deck Interfaces Using Fitts’ Law, from SAGE journals: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0018720819862146
Insightful reading about something many take for granted in Sci-Fi.
From my experience with my cell phone, if it was linked to some sort of weapons or life-systems on a starship and I had control… well, the number of times, I’ve hit one button and accidentally opened different apps or features inside Twitter? Let’s just say, it’s just the accidental Messenger phone call that happens.
That said, I suspect there will still be tons of touchscreens/flatscreens in Sci-Fi as it fits the ‘vibe’ of the future. But I’m also here for old-school Star Wars ships (with all those knobs and switches) to make a come back.