Entirely social. Commercial jets are already equipped with software that can take off, navigate, fly, and land the jet. Generally more efficiently than a pilo

Entirely social. Commercial jets are already equipped with software that can take off, navigate, fly, and land the jet. Generally more efficiently than a pilot can. The job really is an easy one for software. Unless something like this happens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232 . Then there's absolutely no replacement for a human being or three in the cockpit, and the public and the FAA know it. A pilot's salary or two is not too much to pay to protect the lives of several hundred people once in a while, even if it's otherwise unnecessary. The military believes it, too, and the jets they fly have a higher likelihood of encountering life or death situations such as having pieces shot off and needing to get home. While there may not be pilots in the jets in the next generation, they'll be flying them for a while yet, and commanding them for a long time. The battlefield is too difficult, complex, and important for anything else. Once someone gives the order to drop a bomb, they'll trust software to execute the order efficiently and correctly. But it's going to be a human being giving the order for a long time. Possibly forever. There are some jobs that won't be done by software until it can pass a Turing test. Software may be able to do the job in the vast majority of cases, and in some societies that may be good enough. Socially speaking, in this society, it isn't.