Hawkeye’s blind spot gives hope to humans everywhere

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

Galway will have both eyes firmly fixed on Kerry this Sunday, but they’ll be keeping tabs as well on a device called after a bird or a character from M*A*S*H after it threatened to do more damage to them than Derry managed in their All-Ireland semi-final.

The realisation that Hawkeye was only human after all might have met with an angrier reaction if Shane Walsh’s point wasn’t restored during the half-time break.

It couldn’t save the Hawkmeister from a hammering of course – social media was created with just this type of fury in mind – but really there was a whole different way of looking at this.

Because Hawkeye’s fallibility was at least a consolation goal for the human race in the one-sided battle against artificial intelligence.

In other words, we know our days are numbers, thanks to technology that ironically was invented by humans to help humans in the first place.

But nothing, not even new technology, is perfect – and Hawkeye, who hadn’t enjoyed such a high profile since they stopped making M*A*S*H, can now become the poster bird for that.

For those who have no interest in Gaelic Games, Hawkeye perhaps requires some explanation. It’s the technology attached to the goalposts that indicates whether the ball is inside or outside them – and is thus a point or a wide ball….or a Tá or Níl as a nod to the language.

For those who don’t remember M*A*S*H, the sit-com about a Mobile American Surgical Hospital (hence the name), Hawkeye Pierce was the doctor played by Alan Alda.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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