Moving Past Automation Replacement Anxiety
<p>As an ardent believer in automation, I utilize AI in my job. When I have the financial means, I invest in shares of automation companies. I fervently hold the belief that automation and AI will lead to a new industrial revolution. Now that I have acknowledged my bias, I aim to present an unbiased, yet optimistic counter-argument to address concerns about automation anxiety and the fear of a labor apocalypse.</p>
<h2>Automation Before the 21st Century</h2>
<p>Although automation has captured headlines in recent years, it is worth noting that we have been living with automation long before the advent of <a href="https://misorobotics.com/flippy-2/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">burger flipping robots</a>, Open AI and Chat GPT.</p>
<p><strong>Textiles and the Luddites</strong><br />
The Luddites are in vogue once again as automation continues to be top of mind for many workers. During the industrial revolution, the Luddites famously destroyed machinery in an attempt to stymie industrialization. However, this uprising was regretfully met with loss of life and suppression by the British government. In the end, the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/lowe/learn/photosmultimedia/industry.htm" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">textile industry grew fifty-fold</a>, creating many more jobs than the Luddites had initially sought to preserve.</p>
<p><strong>The Electric Dishwasher</strong><br />
Some automations are so common that we often forget that they are, in fact automations. Commercialized in the 1950s, t<a href="https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS2619#:~:text=In%201886%2C%20Josephine%20Cochrane%20invented,soapy%20water%20followed%20by%20a" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">he dishwasher</a> is now a fixture in millions of homes and restaurants. However, it is important to note that the job of a dishwasher has not disappeared entirely. It has enabled a single employee to handle dish washing while also attending to other responsibilities. In my personal experience, this meant taking on additional tasks such as mopping, bussing tables, and eventually moving to the front of house to make malts, as long as the dishes were clean.</p>
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