While automation offers benefits such as increased business efficiency and reduced staff costs, it also poses significant disadvantages, such as the inferiority of technology and the threat of job losses for real people.
The Luddite movement in the early 19th century was attributed to psychological or religious causes, with workers being portrayed as savages who were frightened by incomprehensible machines and trying to destroy them. However, this was simpler than that, as machines endangered the most skilled workers. In nineteenth-century England, wage cuts could have been disastrous, as workers lost their homes and the means to support their families. Their discontent turned out to be prophetic, as Britain’s industrialization had benefited the rich and the country as a whole, but it had been a disaster for the workers themselves.
Nowadays, technophobia is primarily based on the fear that the growth of automation will reduce the value of the live workforce or make several professions irrelevant altogether. This temporary negative effect was offset by the general trend. However, the situation has started to change in recent years, as machines have begun to creep upon intellectual work. Today, people who have spent years of their lives learning are just as likely to lose their jobs as skilled workers were in the past.
The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries saw improvements in tools and the adaptation of machines to replace humans in production processes, leading to an increase in the level of production. The transition from the use of individual machines to an “automatic machine system” was initiated by scientists, who prompted the transition from the use of individual machines to an “automatic machine system.”
Before the 19th century, the study of automatic devices was confined to classical applied mechanics, who regarded them as separate mechanisms. Automation laboratories were created in research institutes of power engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, machine building, and municipal services. Technical and economic studies of the importance of automation for industry development in various social conditions were initiated, focusing on the more efficient use of economic resources, improving the quality and homogeneity of production, and increasing the operational reliability of installations and structures.
Nowadays, automation is having a substantial impact on the workforce, mainly by introducing specific automated processes that were previously carried out by humans. Some professions may decline in relevance or even disappear altogether due to automatization, such as accountants, translation industry professionals, and occupations associated with security. However, there will be a vast number of new jobs in the world, with experts with rare expertise and skills in demand.
In conclusion, automation is not an acute threat to the workforce. With the disappearance of some jobs, hundreds of other, more creative jobs cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence. As technology advances relentlessly, automation will be introduced into more and more areas of human life, making life easier and relieving humans of routine work. Instead, humans will have far more resources to do creative work and apply their exceptional skills and qualities.
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