Mechanisation and Human Life Exercise 1 Mechanisation is providing human operators with machinery that assists them with the muscular requirements of work or displaces muscular work. In some fields, mechanization includes the use of hand tools. In modern usage, such as in engineering or economics, mechanization implies machinery more complex than had tools and would not include simple devices such as an un-geared horse or donkey mill. Automation/Mechanisation has had a notable impact in a wide range of industries beyond manufacturing (where it began).
Once-ubiquitous telephone operators have been replaced largely by automated telephone switchboards and answering machines. Medical processes such as primary screening in electrocardiography or radiography and laboratory analysis of human genes, sera, cells, and tissues are carried out at much greater speed and accuracy by automated systems. Automated teller machines have reduced the need for bank visits to obtain cash and carry out transactions. In general, automation has been responsible for the shift in the world economy from industrial jobs to service jobs in the 20th and 21st centuries.
My friend, who worked in the field of publishing, told me that a lot of jobs are gone, many in layout and production, since computers do layout and design faster and more accurately. Here’s just a glimpse of how much the world is changing around us. * Use of Electronic Computer in the world increased from 0 in 1960 to more than 1. 6 million in 1988. * Robots were an absolute rare in 1970’s but in 1990 more than 75 thousand robots were in operation. * Industrial microcomputers in US rose from 0 in 1977 to 3 million in 1985. Q1Will Robots/Automation/Mechanisation spoil our lives?
Q2Will Robots/Automation/Mechanisation ingest human jobs? Q3What will be the impact of Robots/Automation/Mechanisation on Human Life? Exercise 2 Fear of Mechanisation/Automation Early production machinery, such as the glass bottle blowing machine 1890’s, required a lot of operator involvement. By the 1920s fully automatic machines, which required much less operator attention, were being used; thus alienating well over than a hundred thousand jobs worldwide. Similarly in agriculture through replacement of manual labor or animal labor and simple hand tools with electrical, steam, or internal combustion engine–powered machinery.
This can be as simple as foot-powered open-drum threshers, to more complex two-wheel tractors, to larger four-wheel tractors, to GPS-guided combine harvesters. Mechanization of agriculture has led to a dramatic decline in the portion of the population engaged in food production. Gallup Organisation, is primarily a research-based performance-management consulting company that uses proven behavioral economic principles to improve organizational performance. Some of Gallup’s key practice areas are – Employee Engagement, Customer Engagement and Well-Being.
In 1939 Gallup Organization conducted a survey of people’s opinions and concluded that machines are responsible for unemployment. Exercise 3 Computers, cell phones and the Internet are just a few of the technological marvels created over the last few decades that have brought tremendous changes into our lives. Now we can communicate with our families, friends and coworkers from anywhere at any time just by picking up a cell phone or connecting to the Internet. These and other new “consumer” technologies unquestionably have eased the lives of millions of people in many ways.
For Military the use of tracked armoured vehicles, particularly armoured personnel carriers, to move troops that would otherwise have marched or ridden trucks into combat. Mechanization dramatically improved the mobility and fighting capability of infantry. The main advantages of Mechanisation/Automation are: * Replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work. * Replacing humans in tasks done in dangerous environments (i. e. fire, space, volcanoes, nuclear facilities, underwater, etc. ) * Performing tasks that are beyond human capabilities of size, weight, speed, endurance, etc. Economy improvement: Automation may improve in economy of enterprises, society or most of humanity. For example, when an enterprise invests in automation, technology recovers its investment; or when a state or country increases its income due to automation like Germany or Japan in the 20th Century. Exercise 4 Economically, the key reason is that Mechanisation greatly increases output per worker-hour. For each worker a capitalist hired, they could get more cloth then then they could if a worker was doing everything by hand. Textile became cheaper as a result. So is the case with hundreds of thousands of other products.
Economists tell us that advancing technology will never cause permanent job loss and widespread unemployment. They believe this because it has always been true in the past. Mechanization of agriculture in the twentieth century helped to dramatically increase global production of food and fiber to feed and clothe a burgeoning world population. Among the significant developments in agricultural mechanization in the twentieth century were the introduction of the tractor, various mechanical harvesters and pickers, and labor-saving technologies associated with internal combustion engines, electric motors, and hydraulics.
Exercise 5: Letter to the News Paper Editor Dear Editor, I read the article “Mechanisation ; Human Life” published in your newspaper and wanted to share my thoughts. The use of machines has radically transformed the nature of productive activity and has left its mark on the imagination, thoughts, and feelings of humans throughout the ages. Scientists have produced mechanistic interpretations of the natural world, and philosophers and psychologists have articulated mechanistic theories of human mind and behavior.
Increasingly, we have learned to use the machines as a metaphor for ourselves and our society and to mold our world in accordance with mechanical principles. This is nowhere more evident than in the modern organization. Consider, for example, the mechanical precision with which many of our institutions are expected to operate. Organizational life is often routinized with the precision demanded of clockwork. People are frequently expected to arrive at work at a given time, perform a predetermined set of activities, rest at appointed hours, and then resume their tasks until work is over.
In many organizations, one shift of workers replaces another in methodical fashion so that work can continue uninterrupted twenty four hours a day every day of the year. Often, the work is very mechanical and repetitive. Anyone who has observed work in the mass-production factory or in any of the large “office factories” processing paper forms as insurance claims, tax returns, or bank checks will have noticed the machinelike way in which such organizations operate. They are designed like machines, and their employees are in essence expected to behave as if they were parts of machines.
Which in turn affected their health negatively in many scenarios; where the body movement was less due to work requirement, workers suffered heart attacks and a dozen more related diseases because of non-movement of human organs. Recall the story of McDonald’s, workers were ordered to execute 1 simple operation which resulted in hindrance in brain functions and people felt exposed to fear of losing job as their mind capabilities were dropping at a significant rate.
My claims have been proven to be true by science recently. Indeed fixed and less movement of human organs cause negative effect and Scientists recommend at least half hour of brisk walking to regenerate the neurons that keep the brain functioning at it’s optimum level. I respect writer’s view about Mechanisation and Human Life hope you would find my opinion worthy as well. With Best Regards, XYZ Address: Contact No.
