"Very few pilots even know how to read Morse code anymore. But if a pilot could read Morse code, he could tell which beacon he was approaching by the code that was flashing from it"
About this Quote
A small, almost throwaway fact about Morse code becomes a quiet argument about competence, institutional memory, and what we lose when “modernization” turns into amnesia. Mike Ferguson isn’t really reminiscing about dots and dashes; he’s sketching a gap between what we assume technology solves and what real-world safety still demands. The line “very few pilots even know” lands like a warning label: expertise is thinning out, and we’re pretending that automation makes that irrelevant.
The example is pointedly practical. A flashing beacon with an identifier is low-tech redundancy, the aviation equivalent of a paper map in the glovebox. Ferguson’s subtext is that resilience lives in layers: when radios fail, GPS glitches, or systems disagree, the old signal still tells you where you are. Morse becomes shorthand for a kind of literacy that’s invisible until it’s urgently needed.
As a politician, he’s also performing a familiar move: using a specialized detail to stand in for a broader cultural critique. It reads like a swipe at complacency in training, regulation, or budget-cutting that quietly trims “obsolete” skills. There’s a subtle nostalgia here, but it’s not sentimental; it’s strategic. He’s invoking the authority of aviation - a domain where mistakes are unforgiving - to suggest that the cost of losing foundational know-how isn’t theoretical. It’s navigational, immediate, and potentially catastrophic.
The example is pointedly practical. A flashing beacon with an identifier is low-tech redundancy, the aviation equivalent of a paper map in the glovebox. Ferguson’s subtext is that resilience lives in layers: when radios fail, GPS glitches, or systems disagree, the old signal still tells you where you are. Morse becomes shorthand for a kind of literacy that’s invisible until it’s urgently needed.
As a politician, he’s also performing a familiar move: using a specialized detail to stand in for a broader cultural critique. It reads like a swipe at complacency in training, regulation, or budget-cutting that quietly trims “obsolete” skills. There’s a subtle nostalgia here, but it’s not sentimental; it’s strategic. He’s invoking the authority of aviation - a domain where mistakes are unforgiving - to suggest that the cost of losing foundational know-how isn’t theoretical. It’s navigational, immediate, and potentially catastrophic.
Quote Details
| Topic | Knowledge |
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