Mechanization of Labor

Rachel Kim
rachelkim1205@gmail.com
Cluster 1: Computers in Everyday Life
Grade 11


Ethics Issues: Mechanization of Labor
Introduction
In todays sophisticated world, machines are everywhere. Machines can be perceived in
two ways: 1) they can be used as tools and applied to tasks to increase productivity or 2) disrupt
human lives by eliminating the need for human skills. As the rate of technological advancements
in machines continues to accelerate, humans feel threatened by their own innovations of
machines. With accelerating developments in artificial intelligence, machines are easily capable
of surpassing human limitations. Working faster and more efficiently than people, machines are
taking over the human workforce and leaving behind 11.8 million of unemployed people just in
the United States. As the world continues to strive for mechanization, automation, and process
improvement, the battle between humans and machines is increasingly inevitable. While
machines are providing the world with undeniable benefits, they are also undermining the power
of humans.
Background
Machines were first developed during the Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth
century. For the first time in history, machines replaced work previously done by humans. The
first machines were seen in the cotton industry. Cotton was no longer spun and woven by hand
but was manufactured by machines. Machines even as primitive as the spinning jenny and the
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cotton gin displayed immediate increases in production and profit. Mechanization further
expanded with the introduction of the steam engine. With the steam engine, humans were able to
substantially multiply the power of human and animal muscles. James Watts engine seemed to
create an inexhaustible and unlimited source of power that could be applied where human,
animal, water, and wind power were lacking. At first, steam power was only applied to
reciprocating pumps. Later, they were also used in factory machines and ultimately in both land
and sea transportation. The steam engine was the moving force behind the Industrial Revolution
by advocating widespread commercial investments in machinery. Steam power triggered a
continuing race to create even more powerful sources of energy to improve machinery.
Ever since the introduction of the steam engine, humans have been innovating ways to
expand the limitation of human powers. While steam power provided the ability to exceed the
restraints of human muscle, innovators are now developing ways to magnify the limitation of the
power of human brains through advancements in artificial intelligence. With developments in
this emerging field of science, people are creating humanoid robots that can imitate daily human
tasks and ultimately human careers. By applying achievements in artificial intelligence to
machines, human lives can be much easier and simpler.
Ethical Principles
Machines provide the world with evident advantages.
They are much more efficient and accurate than humans. In
addition, they can always work continuously and can be
operated by unskilled workers. However, machines also
come with countless disadvantages. One of the most
significant issues is the elimination of tasks due to machines
and ultimately decreasing employment. As more and more
tasks are being transferred from humans to machines, people
are losing their jobs. The pie chart Automation in Services
has a Dramatic Effect, displays that jobs in agriculture,
industry, and services are heavily impacted by machines. In
agriculture, while machines have decreased almost 98% of
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agricultural labor, they have displaced and decreased agricultural workers to only 1.2% of the
working population. In addition, faster and cheaper computers are providing machines with
capabilities that were once limited and distinctive to humans and allowing machines to
understand speech, translate from one language to another, and recognize patterns. Due to such
technological achievements, careers including translators are obsolete and no longer needed.
Automation is now quickly expanding beyond factories. Most of the jobs in the economy such as
careers in marketing, sales, call centers, and services are now all being replaced by machines.
Although machines provide the world with evident benefits, they are threatening the lives of
millions of people.
Although employment issues seem to only be applicable to recent decades, they
surprisingly originate in the Industrial Revolution. When textile machines were first introduced
in the cotton industry, many people suddenly found themselves replaced by machines and
unemployed because textile machines required only minimal human labor. Threatened by
machines, the Luddites, a group of textile artisans, banded together in the early nineteenth
century and protested against newly developed textile machines by destroyed them. This group
symbolizes the beginnings of the effects of mechanized labor and represents the millions of
people who lost their jobs due to technological advancements. Ethical problems regarding the
mechanization of labor clearly arose from the origins in machinery implementation.
Employment is major concern in the modern world. During the Great Recession, millions
of people lost their jobs; one in twelve people just in sales lost their jobs. Many of these people
have not yet recovered from this economic collapse. Although the economy has been slowly
reviving, the United States still faces more than 9% of the population unemployed. Adding onto
the economic crisis, increased mechanization of labor is worsening the chances of bringing
everyone back into the workforce anytime soon. Since the end of the recession, business have
increased 26% in equipment and software investments to substitute technology for people as
much as possible. Although productivity has increased more than 2.5% during the past decade
and is much higher than that of any other point in history, as evidenced in the graph U.S.
productivity and employment, the gap between productivity and employment is in the economy
is far lower than other times. Despite the advantages of machines, they are detrimental to the
economy.
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Stakeholders
Mechanization of labor has a significant impact on the entire world. Although it seems as
if only lower skill-leveled careers would be vulnerable to modern technological advancements,
professionals are also affected by machines. For example, radiologists, who can earn over
$300,000 per year, after over 13 years of college education, are being replaced by the newly
developed automated pattern recognition software that can accomplish the task for cheaper costs.
Another group of professionals who are affected by machines are lawyers. Clever algorithms
now can quickly search case law, easily evaluate the issues, and simply summarize the results for
a portion of the cost of humans. Without doubt, machines will be able to replace most jobs in the
near future.
Solution
Continuous advancement in technology is inevitable. Machines will continue to takeover
the human workforce. While there are no solutions in stopping technological progress, people
can learn how to work with technology. Humans have the unique ability to innovate. People can
develop new business models that incorporate both mid-skilled laborers and cheap technology to
develop value. While the current century is difficult to compete with machines, it is the right
time to become a successful entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship has revived Americas economy most visibly. Companies including
Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon have created hundreds of billions of dollars by
innovating new product categories, environments, and industries. These companies have created
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marketplaces that respond to the employment crisis by bringing human and machine skills
together. For example, over 600,000 people have successfully used Amazon and eBay to earn
their livings by providing products for a global customer base. Similarly, Googles Android
Marketplace and Apples App Store have made it easy for people to create mobile applications
and distribute their ideas worldwide. Such digital technologies have created opportunities for
individuals to apply their unique knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the whole world
economy. Although these services may not create a flow of billion-dollar businesses, they can
provide people opportunities to at least put food on the table and pay rent for many families. As
long as people have the innate abilities to imagine, learn, create, and have intuition, humans have
advantages compared to machines, since machines have the hardest time imitating these natural
human abilities.
Conclusion
In the future,
technology will continue to
improve. As evidenced in the
graph, it is inevitable that
humans will continue to lose to
machines. Although most jobs
today are done by humans, as
seen in the green line, by 2040,
it is projected that machines
and robots will take over the
human workforce, as seen in the red and purple lines. Machines are much more powerful and
skilled than humans; their capabilities of machines are limitless. The only solution to the battle
between humans and machines is learning how to work with machines, rather than fighting
against them. While machines will replace humans in countless tasks, through human-machine
partnership, they will also strengthen the power of humans, allowing people to make
accomplishments far beyond that can be imagined.
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