To further NoD's comments, while the pilot's inattention seems to be the main cause of the accident, the failure of an input system was the initial trigger for the chain of events. Given that this failure cause erroneous indications on the PFD and erroneous actions by the automatics, rather than being detected, bringing up a warning flag and causing the data to be invalidated from the AFDS, this shows how vital it is to have a human brain (two or more, actually) monitoring and controlling the overall show. Human brains have the capability to look at all the different parameters and determine what is actually happening, but automatics can't always do that. As for the comparison to Airbus, from what I gather, never having flown one, they're great until things start going awry, at which point mode confusion becomes a really big problem. I prefer everything to be kept relatively simple, with as many cues to the pilots as possible with regard to what the aircraft is doing - not just visual or aural, but tactile too (I don't like the idea of the throttles and stick not moving on the Bus). The important thing, regardless of type, is that the pilots monitor the aircraft properly and have a good knowledge of how it works.