There is an enormous variety of problems with computer-based systems in aerospace contexts, the number of incidents is clearly increasing, and I fear will continue to do so.
The philosophy underlying all this increased technology is a bit of a challenge to come to terms with isn't it? There are a lot of agendas and factors at play.
1. Accident investigations repeatedly cite human factors (decision making, knowledge, communication, CRM etc) as the most common contributor to the accident. It therefore makes sense to try and reduce this dependence on humans as much as possible. And overall, safety appears to have increased in line with this.
2. At the same time, we have ever-increasing technology allowing us to go down this route. And huge corporations with vested interests in promoting this expensive technology as the way forward.
3. So far, so good. But (and there is always a but), this will inevitably lead to an increasing and insidious disconnect between the pilot and the aircraft. Manual flying skills have likely degraded somewhat. Pilots now may have less situational awareness than in years gone by. There is perhaps a tendency for them to not fully understand all the systems - they know how to operate them under normal conditions sure, but is it possible for them to really understand what is happening when a serious problem suddenly appears out of routine. I accept that all this is a generalization and a gross over-simplification. But even so, is there some truth in this?
4. If these systems fail, then control is thrown back to the pilots. Presumably you would then want the interface between the pilot and the aircraft to be as intuitive as possible, you would want full control authority, and you would want to encourage the pilot to actually fly the aircraft. Is this what the pilot gets however? Or do they get pages of warnings on their displays, information overload, confusion about what is happening, and some unfamiliar degraded flight law?
Overall, the statistics suggest that we are on the right track. But every now and again (and almost at random) the holes will all line up.