I see a future where people who understand how things really work (computers, machines and people)

I think that's wildly optimistic.

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

Perhaps.
But it is even more optimistic to believe that all these computers and machines will actually work effectively most of the time.

Also I look around and all I see is ridiculously lazy and deluded people.... at the helm of important business and in the trenches (pretending to dig).

My biggest concern is that my kids will turn out to be deluded and lazy.
(And waste all their time in the post-millennial equivalent of the lavender room).
Not that they will find opportunity lacking.

i agree with 100% of what you say here...except, i am not missing the point, i don't know if you understand the process to get a plane from point A to B. everything you said is correct but is all low hanging fruit.

i know nothing about surgery but i'm going to guess that for a heart surgeon doing surgery on some fat ass the hard part doesn't really start until you cut through all the fat. the fat cutting is the easy part, the real talent comes when they pick up the scalpel and start cutting around the heart. everything you've mentioned has been culled with a chain saw, we are now in scalpel territory.

i don't think the rate of change to get through the scalpel cutting is going to happen as the chain saw years were.

everything you've mentioned is automation, the article talks about AI. the automation in airplanes has gotten a whole lot better but is still far from a level i'm willing to let it go about on it's own. connecting AI to automation and trusting it, i believe, is still a long ways away.

the other issue that has not been address regarding one pilot is that the level of management of non-normal situations goes down dramatically with one person. 1/2 the pilots in the cockpit does not mean 1/2 the ability to manage emergencies, it's more of a 70-80% degradation in ability. i don't think people realize how much we depend on each other when things go tits up. all the pieces of the puzzle need to be looked at, automation, AI, reliability of systems and when the systems fail what is the resultant load on the human. i don't think the automation is at a level that is safe for one human. the amount of variables in actually moving planes around is too great for automation, AI and computers to manage at this point.

edit: 747s and dc-10s have always needed only 3 crew members to operate. now when flying over so many hours additional pilots are required due to the limits that pilots can sit at controls during a flight, but these are human limitations and have nothing to do with how many people are needed to operate the aircraft.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

I am a little surprised to look at a modern cockpit, even a 'glass' cockpit. There are still so many switches, dials, displays, gauges, etc.

If automation were right around the corner. There would be some place to enter the flight plan (if not downloaded remotely), and then one big dial that goes from 'Gate', to 'Taxi', 'Takeoff', 'Cruise', 'Landing'.

The pilot would still steer the plane on the ground, and maybe adjust the throttles some, but that's it.

The fact that there is still a long checklist of things to do to get a plan ready for each phase of the flight tells me, full automation is a long way off.