When automation is mentioned, robots with artificial intelligence that shape the future will come to many people’s minds. But automation technology represents much more than that. So much so that we can even say that its history goes back hundreds of years. Let’s take a closer look at what automation is and how it has progressed from past to present.
Automation is coming, automation is becoming widespread, we have started to hear the words like everything will be great thanks to automation, especially after the 2000s. With the development in information technologies, it was thought that the automation process would be used more in this field. But when we look back What is automation We can see that the answer comes from hundreds of years ago.
What is automation As an answer to the question, we can give a simple answer by considering today’s systems. However, when a deeper examination is made, it is possible to say that automation technology is almost the same age as the human production process. With the light we get from the past What is automation Let’s take a closer look and see with examples how it has changed our world from past to present.
What is automation?
Automation in its simplest definition; various goods and services production and post-production is the development and use of special technologies in order to control and monitor In other words, automation is a technology that can be applied in every period and sector where people produce a good or service. Of course, the technology applied is developed within the conditions of the period.
Today, we evaluate the concept of automation through artificial intelligence, machine learning devices and even robots. because conditions of our time creates such needs. But in the past, automation was used even in small workshops and factories with limited production that would seem ridiculous today.
The first traces of automation as we know it today are encountered in Ancient Greece:
Written by Homer, the master of ancient Greek poetry, it is described as a poem by some and an epic by others. In a story told in the Iliad It is possible to find the first traces of the history of automation. Automation appears in a story set in 762 BC, in which Homer often mentions Hephaestus, the god of fire and crafts.
The story tells of a workshop where Hephaestus crafted powerful weapons for the Greek gods. Developed to help Hephaestus in this workshop, There are some robots that we can call vending machines. Although Hephaestus designed these automatons to do what he wanted, it is mentioned that they had intelligence of their own and therefore they often argued with Hephaestus.
We do not have enough evidence that the workshop in this story, which can even be associated with the lost continent of Mu or Atlantis, actually existed. In conclusion, the Iliad is a work of fiction. However, imagining machines that will make people’s work easier, even in a fictional work written hundreds of years ago, can be seen as the first steps of automation technology.
Automation, which made its real debut with the Industrial Revolution, is slowly starting to change the society in only one region:
What is known about the past of automation is not only based on Homer’s Iliad. for miners in the 11th century and Known to have been developed for workers in the 17th century and it is known that there are many different automation technologies produced with the aim of reducing the burden on employees. In fact, researchers have a lot of evidence on the subject. However, we can say that automation literally started with the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution, also called the Industrial Revolution; The place of human power, which started in England in the 18th century and started all over Europe, steam powered machines It is the beginning of the production process. The replacement of human power by machines is a unique opportunity for the emergence of automation.
With the Industrial Revolution, some special machines were developed to meet the increasing demand for paper, cotton and similar products and to make the production process more efficient. even today one of the indispensable tools of the cotton industry The invention of the cotton gin, one of them, dates back to the Industrial Revolution. Just like the cotton gin, the Fourdrinier machine, which accelerates paper production with special paper layers, is among the automation products invented in the same period.
automation products, speeding up the production process of a product with increasing demand are developed for the purpose. With the increase in the need for cotton fabric, the gin machine was developed, and with the increase in the need for paper, the paper sheet machine was developed. During the development process, these machines; They were made much more efficient by operating with steam, water and coal power.
An engineer from Ford becomes the first to conceptualize automation:
Of course, the ancient Greeks or factory workers were not talking about the development of automation products in the daily conversation. The concept of automation and used as we know it today, surprise no one, it started with a Ford Motor Company engineer.
With the great developments in the field of transportation and communication in the 1940s, individual vehicles called automobiles had to become widespread. The inventors who laid the foundations of today’s automobile industry from Ford Motor Company engineers DS Harder; He introduced the concept of automation in 1946 and took the first steps of automation as we know it today. The origin of the word is also based on the developments in this period.
What is automation in today’s world, will robots come?
Especially after the Second World War, automation systems all over the world are at least with established technologies in heavy industry We can say that they are. The machines, which we used to fear as the work of the devil, are now used even in the smallest production workshop. Of course, developments in these sectors continue, but humanity has now turned its eyes to information technologies.
All sectors as we know them are now blended with information technologies and using automation products. they want to be rendered unmanned. In today’s world, automation technologies aim to get maximum efficiency with minimum manpower. So yes, robots are the future and they will be in full focus of industrial automation technologies. Maybe the products produced with the physical strength of thousands of people can be easily made with an automation technology with artificial intelligence.
Unemployment increase that will come with automation:
The main purpose of automation is to reduce the workload on employees. However, with automation, the workload on the employees will be reduced so much that there is no longer a human workers will not be needed. This situation is a great pressure factor all over the world, especially on the blue collar workers.
With the spread of automation, the unemployment rate is expected to increase. However, in the reshaped world, business lines will also take shape. E.g; workers will no longer work in machine production, but in the delivery process. Nevertheless, this situation affects the workers who earn their living with physical strength. will have a negative impact and it is a predicted fact that many people will lose their jobs.
RELATED NEWS
Website Calculating the Probability of Artificial Intelligences to Take Over Your Business
For you what is automation we answered the question and some examples from his hundreds of years of adventure we gave The world is changing and developing faster than ever before. It is necessary to carry out more planned studies on the subject so that the segments who cannot keep up with this process somehow are not victims. Or robots could take over the world.