Dark Sides of Technology - 1

Dear readers, in my previous hub, Technology – Bright and Dark Sides, we have seen some random captures of how technology, while helping us move forward, have a lot of disadvantages alongside. In this article I would like to share some information regarding the same, more specific to automation in different industries.

Before we move forward let’s understand what is automation and why did it come to existence. Automation is derived from Automatic. Industries came up with this concept following the tendency ‘To Err Is Human’. We, the humans, cannot be consistent with any type of work. There are always ups and downs. This in turn affects the quality of the produced goods along with the time span, as they tend to vary. On the other hand machines work by lesser human efforts and can work for longer period of time. Adding to it, quality and time taken do not vary as much due to no mood swings. This gave industries advantage over human efforts and lured them to implement the concept. These days almost each and every mid to large scale industry has implemented this concept. As a result production has become faster and consistent and quality is maintained at the same time there by the overall growth has become rapid.

Now let’s have a look at the other side of the coin. All the man-made equipments have flaws due to which history has seen different types of crisis and casualties. Let’s take a look at what type of issues may arise due to automation and in cases of failure.

Automation, when implemented in any industry it reduces human efforts. This results in less employment and more layoffs. Adding to it a person operating a machine through-out his job duration does not have to use his brain at all. Turns out, a working class person loses his intellect and creativity over the period of time and not does it end there, according to evolution process, it’s whipped unto the third generation.

Moving forward, all kinds of equipments produce one or the other type of chemicals also known as by-products most of which pollute their surroundings. For example, automobiles used for transportation uses petroleum products as an energy source in order function. No matter however big or fast it may the remains of the energy source from any automobile are Carbon Compounds which in turn pollutes our environment, known as CARBON FOOTPRINTS. We, the humans, after putting all our brains in order to get rid of this problem, have not come up with a single solution which can cure the damage we have done to our surroundings. Each and every invention a man has ever come up with has a baggage alongside which is totally overlooked initially. Later on when the baggage gets heavier we start bragging about it. What’s the point? Prevent it before happening.

Certainly not, automation, in current times, come with artificial intelligence, that is machines are fed with programs and data in order to function and provide result as required. Sad part is whenever these machines go haywire, it takes more than required to build them and there is a lot of waste produced before it is set back on track. When one of it stops working suddenly there can be a disaster. As we can see in the following video, a diesel engine went haywire while function. The good part was no man was around it when this incident occurred.

However you can imagine how deadly it could have been if someone would have been nearby.

This is a just part of the whole picture. We all can imagine how worse it can get, as humans have become greedy and machines have started to take over. It’s all up to us to decide whether automation is necessary. If Yes then to what extent.