#1 - Automated flight technology can guide an aircraft very

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Resolve the Paradox. The correct answer choice is (E)

This stimulus presents us with the following paradox: even though automated flight technology can
reliably guide every part of an airplane’s flight, this technology is still subject to human error.

The question stem requires that we find the answer choice which best explains the apparent paradox.
The correct answer choice will be the one that explains how a properly functioning, reliable
technology, which is capable of guiding a plane from navigation to landing, still fails to provide a
completely reliable guard against human error.

Answer choice (A): The author tells us that the technology is not a perfect safeguard even when
functioning correctly. This choice fails to explain this fact, so it cannot be the correct answer to this
Resolve the Paradox question.

Answer choice (B): This answer choice, like incorrect answer choice (A) above, fails to resolve the
paradox: a lack of updates is irrelevant, because the technology is not a perfect safeguard against
human error, even when that technology is functioning correctly.

Answer choice (C): This choice, which discusses a malfunction scenario, is irrelevant to the question
of why properly functioning technology of this sort is vulnerable to human error. Like incorrect
answer choices (A) and (B) above, this one fails to address the issue of well functioning automated
flight technology.

Answer choice (D): The paradox presented in the stimulus, the fact that well functioning automated
flight technology is vulnerable to human error, is not explained by this choice, which deals with
problems that are caused by neither the flight technology nor human error.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice, explaining why the technology described in
the stimulus is still subject to human error. If automated flight technology invariably executes exact
commands, then the technology is only as good as the human in command. If a human makes an
error, the automated flight technology is programmed to perfectly execute the flawed command.

[Kdup]

Hi Powerscore,

So, I thought I nailed this question during the LSAT but, I didn't. I incorrectly selected answer choice A instead of E . When reading the question, I isolated the conclusion and the statement. "Yet this technology, even when functioning correctly, is not a perfect safeguard against human error." and "Flight technology can guide an aircraft very reliably". Then I looked at question stem. Saw that it was a resolve the paradox question. After that, I looked at the answer choices. I easily eliminated B, C, and D. I selected "A' because it said that automated flight technology does not always function correctly.". Is this answer incorrect because E is more specific and that A only satisfies one side of the statement.

[Francis O'Rourke]

Hi Kdup,

You may be overlooking one important part of the conclusion. The speaker states that the the technology is not a perfect safeguard "even when functioning correctly". What we have to resolve then is how accidents can occur when the technology is functioning well.

Answer choice (A) does not resolve the situation, since it only tells us that the technology may not always function well. What we need is a reason for the technology to not provide a safeguard when it is functioning correctly. Choice (A) is therefore out of scope.